


To Where We're Led

by AdinESmith



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A little angst here and there, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gay Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith knows, Lance doesn't, M/M, The timeline is a bit different from the show but I will explain in the notes, lance is also bad at feelings, pidge uses they/them, slight slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25425907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdinESmith/pseuds/AdinESmith
Summary: To them, it was just another coalition party, until some sort of spark flies between the two while dancing. Lance and Keith don't remember, but the whole galaxy does and now they're the hottest gossip in the universe. It only gets worse when they begin to feel physical pain when away from the other, but they don't tell each other that. While the other Paladins ignore it in order to catch a squad of rogue advanced Galra ships, will Lance and Keith figure it out before a different big discovery is made?
Relationships: Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 83





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Before you start reading this is important. I have to explain when this fic takes place:
> 
> It is after season 5, except Keith returned early to the team. The only part of canon season 6 that happened is the Black Paladins episode (so Clone Shiro is gone, real Shiro is back). Shiro and Coran lead from inside the castle while Keith leads voltron from the Black Lion. Lotor is on their side too with his squad of ships. They defeated Zarkon and Honerva a few months prior and are now travelling to let planets know they are freed and lock up Galra fugitives. Lotor leads the Galra now and with the help of the Paladins, found a mostly uninhabited planet for them to live on. He's working hard to undue the hurt his parent's empire caused but knows it will take many years and some people many never forgive the Galra. Also, Lotor never made the hidden Altean colony, so they never met Romelle. Lotor and Allura are in love. Lance gave up on Allura after realizing his best friend is a lot happier with Lotor. They have not been able to visit Earth yet, but Keith's mom, who is still with Blade of Marmora, visits from time to time. If you have any questions about the timeline adjustments, you can leave a comment and I'll do the best I can to answer. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! (This is my first fic btw)

Keith already knew he was gay. He realized long ago that he liked guys, but fully realizing he liked Lance was a challenge he never thought he’d face. He didn’t even know why he was struggling, it was just... difficult. Kind of like the first time he said “I like boys” or “I like him” outloud, except multiplied. Keith had had many crushes before but this one felt so intense. Whenever Lance was remotely close the pressure would lift his soul from his body and make him as red as a rose. Even just thinking about Lance’s mischievous grin had his heart pounding to escape. 

Keith splashed water in his face a couple times, trying to cool his thoughts and reduce any redness. All he had to do was get through tonight’s dinner and then he’d have a whole week to figure out his feelings, more or less, before the next scheduled coalition activity. Of course, getting through tonight meant having to keep himself from mindlessly staring at a stunningly dressed Lance who would be seated next to him all night. At this point he’d considered quitting countless times and just messaging Shiro that he wasn’t feeling well. He’d head back to the ship and sleep peacefully far away from Lance and his shining smile, but he knew Shiro would probably guess something was up. Shiro could read him well, he’d practically raised Keith and was more of a close understanding brother than a father figure. Keith stared at himself in the mirror one last time before wiping the last water droplets off his chin. He took a deep breath as he left the bathroom and headed back to his seat. 

+++

Lance wondered where Keith had gone. He left abruptly several minutes ago without any explanation and hadn’t returned yet. This worried Lance, he thought maybe Keith had gotten sick, or maybe he had just run into an old friend and got caught up in talking. That wasn’t likely though as Keith didn’t make small talk and had never mentioned any old friends to him. Plus he doubted any of their old comrades would happen to be at the same party on the same planet, the universe was too big for that. Coincidences didn’t happen in space. 

Music was playing loudly in front of him, the dance floor not too far away. Several young women had come over to ask him to dance, giggling as they asked, and usually he would eagerly accept. Lance enjoyed the ladies swooning over him, but his mind was too preoccupied being worried about Keith, so he declined. Stupid Mullet has me so worried over him I’m even rejecting girls. He better owe me for this! Lance was annoyed, not exactly at Keith, but more at the fact that recently all his mind could think about was Keith. When he was near it screamed “Keith? Keith! Ahaha his angry face is cute. Not cute enough to get girls though.” And when Keith wasn’t around he found himself wondering was he was doing, if he was hanging around with someone else. Sometimes he’d asked Shiro very slyly, just to find out Keith was studying somewhere or training in the bay. Keith usually hung out alone. But so did Lance. He kinda wished they would hang out alone together. 

He’d been having these kinds of thoughts and worries ever since his Rival returned from the Blade of Marmora. The team felt emptier and incomplete when he was gone, there was no one for him to bicker with or annoy when Hunk and Pidge were doing their own thing. Sometimes, Lance worried Keith would leave again, give the Black lion back to Shiro, and join the Blade of Marmora forever. Lance wouldn’t mind following Shiro’s lead again, but being Keith’s right hand man just felt better. Shiro was several levels above him, it didn’t feel right to stand directly next to him. With Keith… it felt more natural? Sure they bickered, but he knew Keith would support him and Lance made sure to always do the same back. He never wanted Keith to feel like he didn’t belong. 

A slower song came on, calming the mood of the party. Coupled up guests climbed onto the dance floor grasping hands and grinning while singles left in sorrow. Lance thought the shift was a perfect time and got up to go search for Keith. As he stood up, Pidge side eyed him.

“Where are you going?” They asked. 

“I’m gonna go find Keith.” Lance answered honestly, not expecting himself to. Pidge just shrugged anyways, then turned back to look at the screen they were hiding beneath the table. Hunk was heading back to the table from the dance floor so Lance quickly left before his other friend had a chance to question him. 

As Lance navigated his way through the countless tables, the music and hum of chaotic conversations began to dim. A lot of the tables further out were less occupied or contained single couples enjoying the shining night sky. Lance looked up to see what all the love birds found so intriguing. At this point he’d seen so many sky’s from so many different planets, he no longer got that special feeling from them. It saddened him a bit, he wanted to re experience those first feelings of staring at the shining stars, watching falling sunsets that came in a different color on each planet. Maybe if he had someone to look up with him like everyone here, it would feel special again. Too bad he’d never had anyone like that before. 

Just as he turned his head back down, Lance collided into an oncoming figure. The impact knocked both back a bit, Lance gripped his shoulder where he’d hit the person and apologized quickly. When he looked up, something inside him leapt and a grin was set loose on his face. 

“Keith! There you are!” Keith paused as he looked over at Lance. 

It took a few seconds before he responded slowly, “Were you...looking for me?”

Lance suddenly felt a little flustered at the question, although he didn’t know why. “You disappeared on us, I had to make sure you weren’t dead or getting into trouble somewhere.” 

Keith had no words, but he still had to say something. All poor pining Keith could do was manage an “Ah” in response. Lance raised an eyebrow. 

“Are you feeling okay?” Lance asked him with real concern. 

“I...” Keith started, he finally pulled his eyes away from Lance, the deep blue suit he was wearing made Keith feel overwhelmed. He looked past and saw the dance floor far off, spotting Hunk doing some flashy move, but enjoying himself. Keith remembered a remark Lance had made ealier that night when the music first came on. 

“Dancing? You bet I’ll be dancing tonight, and I'm sure any of the lovely ladies here tonight will be dying to be my partner.”

“Have you danced yet Lance?” Keith suddenly asked.

“What?” Lance was confused. Keith normally asked unusual questions, that's who he was, but this was stranger than usual to Lance. An awkward air rose between the two. It couldn’t quite be described but at least Keith understood why he wanted to bash himself in the head after speaking. What Keith didn’t know was that Lance was experiencing something similar, he assumed Lance felt nothing at all. And Lance, well, he was oblivious. He thought it was the ambience of the party, the thumping music that was making his heart race. 

Keith couldn’t take the rising heat in his body anymore. He couldn’t stay standing in front of Lance, looking at him. Looking at his slicked back deep brown hair with added blue sparkles for the night and his endless blue eyes. Every nerve in his body was screaming and heating up as if it was trying to boil him out of his own skin. 

“Let’s go.” Keith grabbed Lance by the arm and began to drag him back towards the dance floor. Lance was once again confused and too shocked to know how to respond. This was an advantage to Keith, his whole face was a bolstering bright shade of red but since all Lance did to protest was make a few unhappy noises, his expression wasn’t caught. Once they reached Hunk on the packed light up floor, Keith released Lance and crossed his arms. 

“Now you can dance.” Keith stated this in his typical cold tone, but every intent behind it was meant to make Lance happy. Lance, still a bit shook, raised his eyebrows and looked at the cross armed Keith. He smirked, laughed at his socially inept teammate, then joined the people around him in their groove to the upbeat music. Although it was an awkward scene with Keith standing in the middle of a bunch of dancing bodies, Lance facing him, along with a totally immersed Hunk, made Keith fit better. Lance tried to do some cool moves to impress his teammate for fun, but all Keith did was stare. Lance took that for his usual, unpleased self. 

Hunk, who had already been on the dance floor for a while now, shimmied closer towards Keith and Lance. He noticed something, something most of the other members had already begun to see between the two. 

“Hey Lance, Hey Keith!” He said in a sing-songy voice. “Enjoying the party!” Hunk was hyped up, he loved parties. Plus the food on this planet was amazing by his standards and provided lots of energy for dancing. It was way better than food goo by a couple galaxies. 

“This is my kind of place, reminds me of our midnight bashes we’d throw back at the Garrison. You, me, and Pidge trashing our place!” Lance and Hunk laughed remembering old times, talking about how they’d always have to deal with a hissing Pidge in the morning and play games to decide who’d do the cleaning up. 

Keith released his crossed arms and smiled fondly at Lance. Something about him being a mess made him more attractive to Keith. He quickly dropped the look as Lance looked back over. 

“Come on Keith, why don’t you let loose a bit?” Lance leaned in and gave the look he always does when he wants to challenge Keith. Keith felt himself getting into trouble. 

“I’m okay.” He answered short to try and avoid the situation. He still needed to make it through the night, already regretting dragging Lance to the floor he didn’t want to make another mood he’d be embarrassed about later. 

“More attention for me then, I could win over every heart here with my moves.”

Hunk encouraged his friend with an enthusiastic tone, “Oooh Lance, I’m excited, show them what you’ve got!” 

“Lance-“ It was too late for Keith to stop Lance. He had already flipped his few strands of loose hair back dramatically and begun to do some questionable moves. They weren’t good, but they certainly weren’t bad. Keith covered his face in second hand embarrassment, also because he could feel himself getting red all over again. That wasn’t from the embarrassment. All the while, Hunk cheered beside him. “Go Lance, Go Lance! That’s our sharpshooter!” Many attendees turned their heads to watch the strange performance and began to clap and cheer for the blue paladin. Lance loved the attention, he only hoped Keith was paying just as much attention as everyone else. Ha! There’s no way Keith could beat me at this! 

Just as Lance was preparing to do a final fatal move, the music suddenly changed. Drastically. It went from popping upbeat into a slow, saturated ballad meant for holding someone close. As other guests began to either pair up or solemnly leave the dance floor once more, the paladins took a second to process. Hunks brain moved faster than the other two, and he smirked as he whacked an oblivious Lance directly into an unsuspecting Keith. 

“Well, I’m going to try and get Pidge out here. Continue without me.” Hunk scurried away, laughing maniacally once the two couldn’t hear. Lance looked up from Keith’s chest, which was where he had landed. Keith had no idea what to do, he stayed like a statue without looking down. Lance jumped back in panic, pushing away from Keith but patting his shoulders in guilt. 

“Sorry Keith, Hunk must’ve accidentally bumped into me...” Lance rubbed the back of his neck and gave a nervous laugh. He was afraid that he’d upset Keith with their contact and also because he didn’t know why he felt so nervous right now. Lance looked around to try and escape the scene, but huddling couples blocked any clear passages out of the dance floor. Keith was looking around too, annoyed at having to be trapped. Every second standing this close to Lance made his insides flutter more, and after the Blue Paladin had crashed into his chest he thought he just might die right there. 

Lance shrugged and held out his hand to Keith, nervous laughing again, “Let’s go along with the song, fit in with the others.” Lance stared down at Keith with sparkling eyes. He’d slow danced with Allura, Hunk, Pidge, and countless other friends before. Sure it was a little weirder with his rival but one dance wouldn’t change anything, and Lance hated not fitting in a scene. He liked to stand out but not in a bad way. Lance had climbed back to back up an elevator shaft with Keith where they were both shirtless. They were back to bantering the minute after. This would be fine. 

Keith tried to think about it, tried to stop himself and act more like his cold image. The sparkle in Lances eyes and his ethereal figure standing in a sharp suit made him weak. He took Lances hand and suddenly the two had their arms wrapped around one another. They first stood far apart at first, but the swaying of the music brought their two chests closer with each beat. 

For Keith, who felt like he already died, a new heaven was born in Lance's eyes. Lance stared into Keith’s as well, speechless. He’d never noticed all the shades of purple contained in Keith’s irises. Suddenly the song disappeared, not from the party, but from the world Lance and Keith were now wrapped up in. Their eyes were locked on each other, their arms unconsciously gripping the others body tightly for comfort. Neither had felt anything this strong before and the space around them became their own galaxy. Keith and Lance at the center had such a strong gravitational pull into one another, everyone around could feel themselves being sucked into their orbit. They didn’t realize all the other guests staring, they didn’t even recognize what was happening. Lance only saw Keith. He could only feel time stopping and flowers blooming in his head. Keith only saw Lance. He felt everything halt and disappear, and that pressure from being near Lance became good. Keith felt at ease for once. 

It’s a known fact that when someone is being stared at from behind, that person will sense it eventually and turn around. With the thousands of eyes of guests, it still took a minute before Lance and Keith realized they were being watched. Their world fell and time resumed as the song ended. Everyone else had already stopped dancing though and instead were gawking at the pair. Both boys were confused and dazed, unsure of what just happened. Nobody knew what was happening. 

Hunk worriedly rushed to the two off the dance floor as the music sped up again. “Let’s sit back down. Shiro is returning soon so we should prepare to leave.” This time, Hunk pushed Lance away from Keith and dragged the two back to the table. He also sat in between them. Both boys stared into the sky. Lance was very clearly in a daze similar to being drunk. Keith was in a shocked state, neither were responsive. Pidge and Hunk exchanged many glances about their friends but didn’t try to snap either out of their trances. The two Paladins had witnessed a lot throughout space but what they just saw was unknown and unexpected. It was either that Lance and Keith had been having an intense staring contest or some strange space incident coincidentally happened at the same time near where they were standing. 

Eventually, Shiro returned from his negotiations and socializing only to find a stagnant Keith and Lance. Once Hunk explained, he got the two on board the ship early from the party and practically shoved them off to bed. Shiro talked to Hunk a bit more asking about what happened and from Hunk and Pidge’s explanations he still had no clue. Without witnessing it himself, he assured Pidge and Hunk that it was probably something else from the party or some late night occurrence on that planet. The three weren’t totally convinced but from everything they’d experienced at this point, it didn’t seem weird anymore, so they didn’t question any further. Shiro still kept it far back in his mind though.


	2. Where it Began

Two Weeks Prior:

The Castle of Lion’s alarm blared into the ears of the peacefully resting Paladins. There wasn’t a set night and day in space of course, but they all agreed to sleep at certain vargas. Now their well cherished rest was being disturbed. Allura was up in an instant, so was Coran, Shiro, and Keith. They all rushed to the control room to see what the report was about. The three others took their time. Hunk originally shot up at the noise, like they were trained, but groaned as he rolled out of bed, he took some time before dashing out. Pidge, well they were already up, they hadn’t gone to bed yet and instead were playing a video game on their portable device. They waited until their kart crashed before slipping into paladin gear and running out. Lastly was Lance, he always wore heavy noise cancelling headphones to bed and was perfectly positioned under the covers. He still heard the alarm even through the headphones, but just sighed and slowly got up. He washed his groggy face till it sparkled and carefully folded his paladin pjs after taking them off. Before leaving his quarters, Lance made himself a nice brew of tea and waited for it to cool a bit so he could carry it out. Once he was all set, he made his way to the control room.

Lance sipped his tea as the control room doors opened, “So, what is it this time? A giant space squid, some evil curse, random wormhole. Please tell me it’s at least something interesting.”

“Lance, you’re late.” Keith doesn’t turn back from his seat while shaming the Blue paladin. 

“Late, no. I just prefer to take my time, get myself ready. Unlike you Keith, I actually have style.” Lance plopped down into his desk and slumped back. He was always so irked at how Keith could look flawless with no effort.

“Lance, Keith is right. You were a whole eight doboshes behind today! Can’t you understand the urgency of these situations.” Allura was displeased as she looked back briefly from her screen at Lance. 

Lance yawned and brushed it off, “Zarkon and Honerva are gone, what’s more threatening than them? The answer is me missing my beauty sleep.” The other Paladins rolled their eyes.

“I’ve got it!” Coran exclaimed, Shiro moved to see what Coran had found while the others listened intently. “Okay, I’ve translated the message and it should play… now!” Coran pressed a button and the ship’s translator began to broadcast. 

“Paladins of Voltron, Heroes of the Universe, Legendary Defenders. Us Kritallians humbly ask upon you for your help. Across several Planets in our system, there have been reports of strange ships landing and passing through surfaces. At first these ships and their pilots were passive and did nothing more than land and leave, but now they have become dangerous and threatening. Destroying spots of sacred nature and important landmarks on our planets. We have no idea what they want or what we have done to them, please help us!” 

“Same old, same old. I’m tracking the coordinates where the message was sent from, I should have the results in… there, done.” Pidge got up from their seat and shared the coordinates with Allura.

“Great Pidge, I’ll wormhole us near that point. The rest of you, get ready to go to your lions just in case.” Coran and Shiro sent shouts to Allura from their positions, letting her know that each system was ready for the jump. The rest of the Paladins were standing ready, like Allura suggested, by the doors to their lions, ready for a cue. Keith was focused, so was Pidge. Hunk was still a little sleepy but he knew this might be serious, although he wished it wasn’t so he could go back and sleep. Lance almost brought his tea with him but one quick glance from Keith had him leave it at his seat. 

Allura opened a large worm hole and Coran counted off the ticks before the Castle of Lions passed through. Once they got through, Allura shut the portal behind them and everyone looked around through the control room window. Their eyes scanned for anything hovering around besides space debris or asteroids. There were a couple planets nearby that came in shades of green, pink, and brown, but they seemed to be peacefully orbiting. 

“I don’t see anything,” Hunk stated. Nobody relaxed, they all stayed alert just in case, they’d had their fair share or surprise attacks with guards down. 

Shiro began to speak, “Coran contact-” The Castle shook and another blaring alarm went off, the radars pulled up an image of two old Galra ships firing at them. 

“Coran, put up the shield!” Allura shouted as she ran to the Blue Lions door. 

“On it!” Was the last thing heard from the control room before the five Paladins slid down the tunnels to their Lions. 

Lance always loved the thrill of the exhilarating ride down to Red. It got his fighting spirit up and helped him to be a bit more relaxed when heading into battles. Although, he still would miss the blue lights flashing over him when he used to pilot Blue. Red was cool too but it wasn’t really his color, he always thought of Keith whenever he saw red. 

Before heading down, Lance wasn’t able to see what was firing at them, it was an instinct of all the Paladins to jump through the door the second they got hit. Sometimes even Shiro would subconsciously head for the Black Lions door and laugh at himself when Keith jumped through first. Lance wondered if Shiro missed the thrill of piloting a lion, being out there directly in the action, blasting and flying around. He didn’t know how Shiro could be so confident all the time. When Blue had stopped responding to Lance, he felt so hopeless and useless, in that moment he’d never doubted more if he was really a valuable part of the team. When Red called out to him and Keith asked for him to be his right-hand, Lance got his world back, but his confidence was still shaken. It had been the worst nearing the end of their battle with Zarkon and Honerva, he worried he’d mess up everything and be the reason the universe was destroyed. At least now there wasn’t the fear of a gigantic Zarkon ship completely wrecking them and Lance could rest a bit easier. Back then as well, any moment could have been their last, he’d even… temporarily died once but Allura was able to bring him back. Lance still had nightmares about it though, he stayed away from outlets and electric workings now. 

Lance landed in his piloting seat, screens came up all around him and he took a deep breath, then rocketed out into space. It had actually been a few days since he flew with Red and didn’t just sit on her chair and talk out loud. Her speed was always impressive to him and he appeared next to Keith outside the castle in no time. The others came and huddled around their Leader behind the castle so the two ships could spot them. 

“I can see the enemy with my own eyes but they aren’t showing up on our radar!” Coran shouted through the comms. “I think they’re moving too fast to get tracking on!”

“They’re firing from the western side, Pidge disguise yourself and see if you can spot anything. Allura and I will try and shoot from here. Hunk, you go below and hit anything as forcefully as you can the minute you spot something. Lance, Red is the fastest so go up top and come down hard.”

“Rodger that, team leader.” Lance responded to Keith. The five paladins split according to his plan. Once they rounded from behind the Castle, Keith and Allura began to shoot at the two ships that could be seen. 

Pidge chimed in from over the comms, “I see two more hiding farther back, they’re using the nearest planet as coverage. I’m heading over.” 

“I’ll cover you Pidge!” Shiro fires a blast from the Castle in the direction Pidge is headed which scatters the two hiding ships. Getting a good look at them, Lance notices they look like modified versions of galra ships instead of the regular plain weak ships. These ones are faster, way faster. Pidge and Hunk wrestle around with a larger one that was hiding while Allura and Keith tag team to chase the two closer toward the Castle. Shiro and Coran are firing shots in aid, keeping their enemies from coming together to attack. One ship was left, it was turned towards the Blue Lion and feigned movements to try and irk the pilot. A zig zagging opponent for Lance was no bother, he grinned in delight. 

“Prepare to be taken down by Voltron's best pilot.” Lance said out loud, he punched forward and zoomed towards the ship, dodging out all of it’s firings. The two became stuck in a game of shoot, chase, and dodge just like the rest of the Paladins. Lance exclaimed as he twisted upside down and made sharp turns, eating up the space between the ship. Several shouts came from the comms as the five Paladins struggled to catch the enemy fleet. Just as the Paladins worked together, so did their enemies, colliding their paths as they’re chased to try and get lions to crash into each other. The Paladins were experienced in battle, way more than these amateurs, and calmly evaded all their antics. 

“We need a plan to catch them, they’re too fast!” Pidge called out. 

Keith became agitated, “I don’t understand, aren’t they old Galra ships? They shouldn’t be able to dodge that easily!”

The engineer of them, Hunk, explained it, “They were old Galra ships but look at the orbiter, its a bit smaller and pulls back into a stronger booster. Also the ships look lighter and whatever is powering them has a brighter light than what powered Galra fighters.”

“So, they upgraded it.” Lance stated. He dodged around another shot fired at him and then intercepted another with his blaster that was headed for the Green lion. 

Keith started, “Then we should-” 

“Watch out!” Allura screamed through the tele comms. Lance immediately turned to see one of the ships hovering, it was charging up and pointed towards the Black Lion, towards Keith. Even though the Blue Lion was already tumbling the Black Lion out of the way, and Lance had another enemy behind his back, he pounced directly on top of the ship.

“Oh no you don’t attack our leader like that!” The claws of Red gripped the ship and Lance angrily threw it several paces back into one of it’s allies. As soon as he did it though, Red was shoved forward by a blast behind him. Luckily, Hunk had his back and body slammed the ship, it went flying back. The last craft retreated from the battle to the line it’s others were now forming. The five Paladins flew together to create their formation, ready to form Voltron if needed, but then the line of enemies facing them unexpectedly fled. A wormhole opened in front of them and before the Paladins could react and chase them through, it closed. The four ships were gone. 

+++

Keith clenched his fists as he entered the control room with the others. It frustrated him whenever he let the team down. He still had his doubts about being the leader.

“Please tell me you got a signal on them.” Allura begged to Shiro and Coran who were hurriedly swiping through screens and projections. 

“Yep, well, almost.” Coran said, it didn’t convince any of them. 

“I think we can try and scan for a similar emission, I was able to do a bit of scanning on one of the ships. I’m not sure if the tracker I placed on it will work, there wasn’t enough time to properly activate it but we’ll know in a few minutes.” Shiro reassured the team. None of the Paladins moved or said anything, they all sat on the edge of their seats. It had been a long time since they’d lost to anyone other than themselves. 

Keith wanted to apologize, “I’m sor-”

“Did you guys see me and Red?” Lance cut him off, “I mean, we were doing some pretty awesome moves out there. Seems like I still improve even when we’re taking breaks.”

“Yes, yes, your moves are cool Lance, you’re the coolest on the team. Oh your so cool everybody in the universe wants to be you.” Pidge flattered him but did it with their monotone, mocking voice. 

Lance ignored the tone and instead corrected them, “No Pidge, they don’t want to be me. They want to be with me.” Lance flashed his signature flashy smile with that little glint, Keith suddenly felt a small wave of heat wash over him upon seeing it. For a split second he thought it was directed at him, until he realized it was for Pidge sitting behind him. Keith immediately turned away and tried to look in any direction except Lance’s, slightly worried someone had noticed his reaction. For some reason, when Keith had been gone from the team, he found himself tighter than usual. He missed everyone and being around them was calming, but when he came back, it was specifically Lance’s small bickering and rivalry that helped him relax the most. Maybe it was seeing Lance happy and carefree that eased his mind. After all, he had left in the first place to make sure Lance wouldn’t doubt his place in the team. Now he was the one unsure of where he belonged. He’d crossed paths with them right before the Shiro clone incident, and after when the real Shiro was back, the Black lion seemed to want a break from their original leader. Shiro wanted a break too and Keith wanted to give his brother that after all that he owed him. That all led to him being the pilot of the Black Lion again. 

“I think I’ve got it!” Coran exclaimed. The team’s nerves rose. “No wait, that’s just the Bi-Boh radio station. Nevermind, false alarm everybody!” The whole room sighed. Keith started to run fighting strategies in his head, plays they could use when separated from each other. Combined as Voltron, all they really needed was their determination and connection to keep Voltron together, but apart there was more needed. That was Keith’s job of course, as the leader of Voltron, although the leadership got tossed around from Allura, Shiro, and Keith most of the time. Sometimes even Lance would lead smaller groups when Keith was struggling, he really appreciated that. 

“While we’re waiting, I think it’s a good time to discuss our next attendance for the coalition.” Allura projected an invitation in front of each of the Paladins. Pidge groaned from their seat while Hunk and Lance celebrated. 

Keith read the first line outloud, “Dear Paladins and Squad members, the planet of Ursuay is hosting a grand celebration for the joining of Uruquac and…. Inuquac?” He was confused at to what kind of party it would be. There was a small silence in the room.

Allura got very excited and her eyes sparkled, “It’s a wedding! We,” She cleared her throat to cover her excitement, “Will be attending for coalition purposes of course. Strengthening bonds!” The other paladins exchanged looks, Keith glanced over at Lance who was making a “she totally has ulterior motives” face at him. The ulterior motive being that Allura just wanted to go to a wedding. “Oh please, It’ll be a fun time for all of us!”

“I don’t know Allura, if we still haven’t caught these ships by that time it wouldn’t be a good idea. We shouldn’t rest until we know these planets are safe.” Keith spoke about their duty as defenders of the universe to try and avoid having to attend the party. 

Lance defended for Allura, “It’s two weeks away, we’ll definitely have caught them by then Keith. Don’t worry, you can sit and sulk in the corner like you usually do. Me and Hunk will steal the stage.” Keith didn’t want to lose to Lance but he had no words, besides Lance and Allura both were giving him pleading looks. Lance’s puppy dog eyes hit something in him and made Keith soft, he was about to give in. 

Shiro, thankfully, interrupted their debate, “We’ve got a location. The ships have landed on a planet in a nearby system and hunkered down. I think we’ll be able to catch them on the surface this time so they don’t get away.” Each Paladin nodded, Keith was already planning in his head again. This time, they headed for the smaller pods instead of their Lions while Allura readied a wormhole. They jumped to a spot a distance away from the planet in order to sneak down without being seen. Once Allura and Shiro joined, they each jumped into a pod. Keith and Lance took the pods next to each other. 

“I’ve got your back Keith,” Lance said suddenly. It made Keith smile gently and eased his nerves of leading, it was a good thing he already had his helmet on.

“Thanks.” Their pods shot out from the Castle of Lions and headed for the planet. Coran shouted good luck to them through the comms as they left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ticks ~ Second  
> Doboshes ~ Minutes  
> Vargas ~ Hours  
> Quintants ~ Days
> 
> These are just approximations of what they would equal in our time.


	3. Where it Was Kept

“Alright Keith, what’s the Plan,” Shiro asked from his pod. 

Keith took a deep breath, “Assuming there are four pilots, three of us chase them ambush. The other three will support from afar and if any of them start to run, catch them off guard. If one splits off completely, try and have two people on them. Detain them however possible, we don’t know yet who we’re dealing with.” The rest of the team affirmed the plan and prepared themselves for the confrontation. Once they touched down on the planet and all climbed out, Keith gave further instructions. “I saw a nearby village, we ask the people there if they’ve seen other ships landing here.” The six member crew climbed through the forestry and soon reached a busy area filled with locals. Just before heading along with the others into the city, Keith noticed Lance stopped and looked back briefly.

“Everything okay?” Keith asked Lance. 

Lance shrugged, “Just got a weird sense that’s all. Come on, let’s go.” Lance continued onwards walking next to the Red Paladin, their shoulders rubbing. If anything were to come from behind, it would not be able to get through the two. 

+++

Hunk and Allura were the best diplomats of the group, they understood people well. While they took care of talking to and questioning locals, Lance scanned around the perimeters of the village carefully watching for any movement in the foliage. He and Keith were standing back to back to better cover every direction. Lance glanced back at a concentrated Keith, he laughed which threw off the Red Paladin.

“What?” Keith asked. 

“What can you see from down there?” Lance teased his friend about their height difference, he did this a lot as it was something he could always win. 

Keith crossed his arms, frankly he didn’t understand why it was funny to Lance. Still, he responded to the teasing, “I am not that much shorter than you Lance.”

“Hmm, what's that? I’m sorry I can’t hear you from up here.” Lance chuckled and grinned down at Keith. 

Keith took a deep breath and tried not to roll his eyes too hard, he was also panicking at the smile being flashed. He turned away from Lance and went back to patrolling the area. Lance chuckled to himself a little more, considering this another win. He pushed his back up against Keith’s again and went back to watching for any signs of movement. 

Hunk and Allura soon regrouped with the rest, Lance and Keith had to wrangle Pidge away from whatever they were trying to scan.

“Hey! That's for research!” They protested.

“Pidge, we don’t have time right now.” Pidge gave a stink eye toward Keith when he wasn’t looking but put away their scanner when Shiro shot them a look. 

Allura gave a report, “The villagers we talked to said several ships were spotted landing a little ways away in the woods. Apparently the only thing to find out there is plants so they have no idea why they would have come here.” 

Keith became a leader again, “Okay, once we find their location let’s split into the two groups like we discussed. Hunk, Pidge, and Allura will corner and chase them while Lance, Shiro, and I will be waiting to ambush. Everybody good with that?” The other Paladins nodded but Hunk looked a little nervous.

“I hate to protest but it might make more sense if you, Keith, corner them and I help ambush. If I try to aim while running I might accidentally destroy a lot of the forestry with my cannon.” The others nodded, none of them could aim well with firing weapons while running, except Lance, and Hunk had an entire cannon which would pose the most risk. 

“That’s fine. Let’s head out now.” Keith signaled for them to head towards the forest. Lance noticed his face turn a little sad, he thought maybe Keith was doubting his leadership again. He planned some ways to try and cheer up Keith later while trailing slightly behind the others. 

As they trekked through the greenery, Lance admired the new plants around him. These ones were weirder looking than any he’d seen on other planets and their colors looked muted which contributed to an eerie sensation in the atmosphere. In front of him, Shiro and Keith were discussing something quietly while Allura determined which way to head. Behind him was Pidge and Hunk who were playing a silent game and trying to hold in their laughs. Lance stared at the back of Keith’s head, his long, silky black hair was directly in front of him so how could he not stare at it. Stupid Mullet… 

Allura suddenly stopped and ducked down, the rest of the line followed and slowly inched up to see what she was hiding from. Beyond the bushes, the four ships they’d encountered earlier were parked sloppily in a semi-clearing. No one could be seen around but the Paladins still took precaution. The two groups split, Lance’s group circled around from the right while Keith’s group took the right side. On the other side, they were able to spot four persons huddling near each other arguing over something. Lance couldn’t tell what they were yelling at each other about but their voices kept rising and falling. There was only one who didn’t seem to be speaking at all, the other three were all dressed in ex-Galra general outfits but the fourth was completely concealed inside a space suit, helmet and all.

Keith gave a signal from across the way for Lance, Shiro, and Hunk to move farther back, then another one to Lance telling him to get to a higher point. It’d taken some practice but now the two were able to interpret their signs to each other during battle, with some miscommunications occasionally. Though, Lance vowed to never confuse “dance as a distraction” and “handcuff the enemy” ever again. 

Climbing up a nearby rock formation, Lance laid down and transformed his bayard into it’s long distance sniper form. It’s been a while since using this form, nowadays if he trained on the deck he’d use his bayard’s sword or shorter distance shooter. Not much sniper work these days with Zarkon and Honerva gone. 

Lance focused through the lens on his targets, waiting for when he was needed. Keith, Allura, and Pidge soon jumped at the grouped Galra, Pidge managed to land on the back of one and they began to wrestle while Keith danced around another using his sword. Allura had wrapped her whip tightly around another, those two were in a strength battle. Lance spotted the last opponent, the one wearing a suit, who activated their blasters and head off into the shrubbery, leaving their teammates. Lance honed in all his senses, perfectly steadying his breathing. Between the leaves and plants it was a little difficult to spot them running but Lance focused on the movement between the trees and aimed. He set off a shot, readjusted, then shot off a second shot a little quicker to make sure he’d caught them. Peering through the lens once more, Lance watched for any more movements, there weren’t any besides Hunk and Shiro moving in on the target he shot. Back near the ships, Pidge had been pushed off the Galra’s back and the Galra had run off, Keith’s opponent was also fleeing. His two teammates chased their foes in the direction of oncoming Shiro and Hunk. Allura seemed to be handling her enemy well, they were still bound up tightly within her whip. 

Nodding to himself, Lance jumped down from his high point and ran through the forest to join the others and help. He spotted Hunk and Shiro ahead of him brandishing their bayards and transformed his own into an Altean sword. Before he could completely catch up, a force coming from his left body slammed him down. The two tumbled far and untangled several paces away from his friends. Lance groaned as he sat up, he’d definitely hit his head more than five times and would have a bump somewhere tomorrow. His attacker was also hurt from the impact despite being the one who initiated the fight. As his vision focused, he could see it was the suited person. Lance reached out grabbing his bayard and stood up to face them. He held out his sword ready for a fight. The suited person stood up tall to face him but didn’t hold any weapon. Lance was confused. Do they want to lose?

He spoke too soon, in the next second they reached behind into a pocket and threw something. Lance yelped as he barely dodged the whistling objects. He looked back at the tree behind him which was now smoking and had three holes pressed into it. 

“You wouldn’t happen to have anything different that you could fight with?” Lance asked, a little worried. His opponent threw three more of the objects again and nearly hit his abdomen this time. Lance gulped. “Yeah no it's fine, just forget I said anything.” Swallowing his fear, Lance lunged forward and the suited person jumped away. He swung around a couple more times before shifting into a routine of coordinated Altean attacks that Allura taught him, but his opponent managed to dodge each one smoothly. With each swing, they almost anticipated it and even took some chances to throw a few more of the smoking objects at Lance. Taken off guard by their knowledge of his attacks, Lance lost focus and while dodging a higher attack didn’t move back fast enough. A stinging pain exploded on his shoulder, he instantly gripped his arm and released his bayard. It de-transformed as it fell down to the forest floor and was lost within some plants. The suited enemy stared down at a writhing Lance, then dashed off. Lance gritted his teeth and followed after leaving his bayard behind. Despite the stinging he still pushed through and used the pain in his arm to run faster, he wasn’t going to let them get away. 

The two made their way further and further away from the others who were too engaged in their own battle to notice the missing comrades. Lance’s teammates assumed he was still working from above with his sniper, not that he was actually bursting through leaves and bouncing off fallen shrubbery. He didn’t have his bayard, but he wouldn’t need it. He was gaining on his opponent, a determined look in his eyes fixed on the runaway and their bright, pink, white, and light blue space suit. An opportunity arose when they stumbled slightly on a vine, Lance immediately pounced like a cat and tackled them. He did it in the same way they had done to him before and the two were once again tumbling. 

“I’ve got you!” Lance yelled as he pinned them down, but they countered and their match turned into a wrestling competition on the forest floor. The balance shifted back and forth, neither side was winning but both were determined to not lose. Lance focused hard to try and find a weak spot in their suit to exploit, but the whole thing seemed solid with no vulnerability. How are they so flexible in this? 

A hand grabbed at Lance’s ankle, and suddenly his feet were no longer planted down. His whole body was flipped up into the air and then forcefully pushed down. Lance landed hard on the ground with a thud. It hurt like hell on his ribs and whacked all the air out of him. The enemy stood above him and blocked the light, they staring menacingly down from inside their helmet. While Lance was struggling to grasp breath again, he gave up and closed his eyes. That last impact left him with no energy to fight or try and get away. If he closed his eyes, the ending to this fight would be less scary. He waited.

Sunlight flooded back over his face and a foot kicked his aching legs. Lance sat up coughing and confused, his enemy was standing a bit away now doing nothing. He didn’t question it, he still needed air and propped himself up against a nearby tree. He rested his head against it and steadied his breaths. Across from him, the suited person still did not say anything or make any movements. 

“Are you going to do something to me?” Lance weakly managed, he meant for his tone to be strong but the way it came out was meek. He coughed again which caused his ribs to ache in pain again, his shoulder was burning as well from the exposed wound. Lance bit his lip to distract from the pain. 

“Lance! Lance where are you?” Voices called out from a distance. He could distinguish the tone of Keith’s voice and slightly smiled. From behind the calls, three of the enemy’s ships began to power up and rise slowly from their resting places. Did they not catch them? Lance’s enemy looked back to where the commotion was happening, then took one step closer towards Lance. Lance held his hands out in a stop motion. 

“You heard my teammates close by, it wouldn’t be wise to do anything. They’ll tear you to shreds the moment you arrive, plus I would worry more about your friends who are leaving you behind.” Lance talked in a mocking, confident tone. He hoped he could scare them away and Keith or Hunk would be here soon to help him back. They weren’t scared off, Lance tried to back up further into the tree as they held out their hand. “Hey, what are you doing…” They reached behind their back. “Don’t-” It was too late for Lance to protest anything, a blast of some kind of energy streamed directly into him. It was a blue-white light that burned his body all over, but then turned into a chilling cold. Lance’s vision blurred and his head hung, before he passed out he could vaguely see the suited person stepping hurriedly away. 

His teammates arrived a couple ticks after he was knocked out, but their enemy was long gone and the last ship took off in the distance. Keith and Hunk rushed Lance back to the Castle as soon as possible, extremely worried for their friend. All six of the Castle’s occupants sat anxiously in the healing room, waiting for Lance to wake up, hoping he would return soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> +++ is used to show:
> 
> 1\. Passage of some time in a chapter (any amount, if it's a lot though it will be stated)  
> 2\. Changing of who the narrative is centered around (Goes between Keith and Lance but really my pov is a mess sorry lol)
> 
> Also, if you see Grammar or spelling errors, no you didn't :)


	4. Where I Don't Want You to Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for a bit of fluff.

Keith paced, and paced, and paced. He couldn’t take the waiting, he couldn’t take seeing his right-hand man hurt. If he could go back and switch places with Lance, he would. 

“Is he awake yet?” He asked, bothered by the situation. Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, and Allura all exchanged glances, then looked over to Coran. 

“No, for the 7th time Keith, he is not healed yet.” Coran always had a way of saying things so it didn’t sound like he was annoyed, but you definitely knew he was. Shiro came over and placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder, he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. 

“How are his vitals Coran?” Shiro asked nicely for Keith. 

“Hmm, let’s see.” Coran busily checked over some screens and mumbled to himself, “Well, the good news is whatever affected him is out of his system so there won’t be that discomfort, his shoulder has healed nicely, though there might still be a little bit of a burn when he wakes up, but other than that all his vitals are perfect!”

Keith was annoyed, “So why isn’t he awake then?” Shiro held him back from inching any closer to Coran.

“I don’t know about you Humans but when an Altean goes through a great deal of physical trauma and pain, we need a few days to rest. We call it recovery.” Keith looked away, this whole situation wasn’t sitting right with him. When had Lance split off? What did that person do to him? Why wasn’t he there for Lance like Lance was always there for him? Keith had never been good at being anyone’s friend, or even a good rival, but he had hoped he could at least be a good teammate. Especially to Lance. 

Hunk came over, grabbing Pidge and Allura on the way. He pulled Keith in tight despite his protests and squeezed them in a hug. Shiro was pulled in as well, although he tried to get away, and Coran willingly joined with some tears. 

“It’s okay guys, I’m sure Lance would want us all to be thinking of what we’re going to wear to that party next week.” Hunk brought up the mood of the other members but Keith was still sulking. He wriggled his way out of the hug and the rest broke apart. 

Pidge chimed in, “I, for one, refuse to wear anything too heavy. I researched the planet it will take place on, Ursuay, and apparently it gets really humid during the night time. Which isn’t good for my hair since it gets all bunched up in that kind of weather.” 

Allura’s eyes lit up at the mention of the wedding, “I can find us all the perfect outfits!” Allura started gushing about all different kinds of Altean and popular space fashion. Their talk about clothing and style continued on, even Shiro was getting excited from their excitement. One paladin stayed out of the conversation though, he kept his eyes fixed on the healing pod Lance was being kept in. The stance he was positioned in really showed off his broad shoulders, usually they were hidden beneath the Paladin armour but now he had been stripped down to the form fitting pieces underneath. His resting face was actually quite handsome, but Keith wanted Lance to open his eyes so he could see their bright blue glow. 

Please wake up soon Lance… Keith caught his thoughts. So I can apologize. Keith obviously cared and would be worried about any teammate during an injury, but whenever it was Lance he could never rest or lay easy. Every thought of his would be consumed by the worry he had for his friend. If Shiro was hurt he felt similarly, but it was a bit different. He’d be extremely worried for his brother, but with Lance he didn’t have a brotherly bond. It didn’t make much sense in his head as he thought about it, so he pushed all the thoughts away. 

“Keith,” Allura said in a soft tone, “The others are going to the kitchen, Hunk is going to make some food goo cookies for us all. I offered to take watch over Lance if you wanted to join them.” 

Keith turned his head to face Allura, he hadn’t even noticed the others slipping away from the healing bay. Keith desperately wanted to stay so he played cool, “It’s okay Allura, you go have fun with the others. I don’t mind sitting here with Lance.”

Allura nodded in understanding, “Okay, send any of us a message if you want someone else to come.” Allura left the room which meant Keith was now all alone with an unconscious Lance. He looked up again at his teammate and frowned seeing a look of pain had developed on his face. Lance’s eyebrows had furrowed down and it looked as though he was grimicing. The room was silent except for a small beeping noise coming from the vitals monitor. The Red Paladin positioned himself on the ground facing the pod. To pass the time, he pulled out his blade and began to polish it, but after rubbing it vigorously for several doboshes, Keith decided to put it away. 

“How many more ticks til you wake up?” He asked the healing pod, a small part of him hoped for an answer even though it was impossible. Keith crossed his arms while walking over to the vitals screen, he checked everything over to make sure nothing had changed. Laying on the small table in front of him was Lance’s bayard, which Allura had recovered while he and Hunk were carrying Lance back. 

Keith thought back to earlier. They were winning against the ex-Galra generals and had them surrounded. Keith had assumed when he didn’t see Lance with Shiro and Hunk that he was still perched high above, doing what their sharpshooter does. Everything was going fine until suddenly their opponents retreated and slipped past their lines of defense. That infuriated Keith and he was about to chase after them in his pod until he realized one pod of their’s was still empty, with it’s pilot nowhere in sight. Then he noticed one of the enemy’s ship was not lifting off the ground either. Immediately panic kicked in and he sped off into the forest, the others caught on and followed after, shouting Lance’s name. Keith had spotted where the greenery was trampled by two wrestling bodies and followed that to find an unconscious Lance. He wanted to cry when he saw him slumped against that tree, he also wanted to seriously fight whoever did it and probably cut down half the trees in that area. Hunk helped him quickly to place Lance inside Keith’s pod and he sped back to the Castle, immediately carrying Lance into a pod and ignoring Coran’s worried questions. He didn’t speak to anyone, not even Shiro, until after the first night and Lance’s vitals were doing better. 

Keith brushed his hands over the bayard below, then clenched his fists. He sat back down in front of Lance’s healing pod, sleep was gradually getting harder to fight and eventually he rested his head against the bottom of the capsule. With the lights turning off throughout the castle, Keith fell asleep next to the Blue Paladin. 

+++

A beeping noise rang in Keith’s ears, he twitched at the noise and shot up thinking it was the Castle alarm again. Once he fully came to consciousness, he realized it was much quieter and was a different tone from the castle alarm. Keith did recognize it though and his heart beat faster. The healing pod’s doors next to him began to fall away to reveal Lance’s figure, and as he fell forward Keith stepped to catch him. In his arms, Lance was a bit heavy but Keith only held him closer. Lance’s eyes fluttered open and blinked, staring nonchalantly up at Keith. The two held their gaze with one another in peace, before the situation was realized and both became flustered. Keith almost instinctively pushed Lance away but stopped himself and helped his buddy to stand properly. Lance tried to step forward again without help but his body still wasn’t fully awake, Keith caught him by the shoulders and sat him down. 

“What happened?” Lance asked, yawning and rubbing his eyes. “Did everyone forget I exist or are they planning to surprise me?” Lance playful moved his head around, trying to look behind any objects in the room. Keith was glad Lance seemed to be acting his usual joking self, but if only he’d waited a few more seconds before speaking maybe he would have been convinced. 

“The rest are sleeping now. You should go and rest too.” Keith stood up and tried to get Lance to do the same as well, it didn’t work. 

“What do you mean sleep? I just woke up from sleeping for…” Lance’s face turned solemn, Keith rarely saw Lance let his guard down but the few times he did it looked just like this. “How long was I out for Keith?”

“About three days.” He held out his hand to Lance, after a few ticks it was taken and the taller boy rose to look down at his rival. Lance sighed and slicked back his hair, he laughed a little too but it still seemed fake to Keith. 

“Where’s my bayard?” Lance made his way over to the table, already seeing his target, Keith watched protectively and made sure to follow nearby in case he collapsed. 

“Allura found it, don’t worry there’s no damage.” Keith waited behind, Lance’s fingers gently brushed over their bayard in the same way he had done, but there was a bit of hesitation in the Blue Paladin’s touch. A few ticks later and Lance let out another one of his small laughs. Keith wanted to reach out to make sure Lance was really doing all right but comforting was something he wasn’t very good at so he stopped himself. Luckily Lance turned around with a smile some time later.

“I’m going to need my beauty sleep before presenting myself to the rest of the team once more, so I’ll head off.” Lance started for the door but Keith could tell he was struggling, he probably still ached all over despite his wounds having healed. Without saying anything, Keith approached and wrapped his arm around the Blue Paladin in order to support him. Lance looked over but didn’t meet Keith’s eyes. A good thing as he probably would have ended up shoving Lance away if they stared at each other for too long. 

Making their way through the Castle’s empty halls, the silence was eerie and caused the two to hold each other tighter. Ever since that one time the ship got haunted, nobody could rest easy walking through the halls alone, especially during their “nighttime” when the lights were turned off. 

“What did you guys do without me?” Lance asked in a dramatic way. Keith rolled his eyes.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Lance frowned.

“Exactly, nothing. What would we do without you?” Keith meant to say it in a playful way, he was trying to start a banter with Lance, but it ended up coming out in such a sincere way neither could respond. 

Luckily, Lance was better at breaking through silence and discomfort and started up a bit more small talk with Keith. Asking what kind of trouble Hunk and Pidge might have gotten into while he was sleeping, if Allura was obsessing over anything new. Keith’s answers were short but he wanted to talk all night with Lance, the past few days had been bland. It might have been because all Keith did was stay in the healing or training deck while the others went out and did other things. Or it might have been because Lance’s lifelessness affected him to feel that way as well. During normal times, there’d be occasional bangs heard throughout the castle followed by Lance either laughing or screaming. There was none of that to ring in Keith’s ears the past few days. 

They reached Lance’s room and the doors slid open, the lights were still on inside and blinded the two. Once inside, Lance detached from Keith’s side and quickly washed his face while Keith watched. He plopped down onto his bed and sighed. Lance’s blue headphones laid beside the bed, he stared down at them but didn’t reach for them yet. Keith moved from his awkward stance in the middle of the room, he shut the lights off for Lance and looked back at his pal.

He was suddenly worried again, “You’ll be okay for the night right?”  
Lance laughed and pushed his hair out of his face, “Of course, I was doing this for the past three days, I’m an expert now.” 

“Hmm. Goodnight then, Lance.” 

Lance waved and used a sing-songy tone, “Goodnight Mullet.” Slowly turning from the room, Keith exited but stopped outside the door once it closed. He didn’t feel right leaving Lance right after he woke up. What if he can’t fall asleep? What if any of his pain returns? Isn’t a team leader supposed to take care of his teammates? Impulse decisions were a common occurrence with Keith, and he decided to make one right then. Lance was caught off guard by the reentry of his teammate and couldn’t react quick enough for Keith to not catch him huddled in the very corner of his bed. 

“Keith?” It was more of an exclamation than a question. He looked down at Lance’s hands which were holding his headphones and shaking. 

“Uh I-” Why was Keith so bad with people? He cleared his throat and tried to restart. “I think, as a leader… I should probably make sure you can rest well. I mean, you woke up from a three day rest just now so you might have trouble falling back…” Keith gulped.

Lance gave a nervous laugh, “I’ll be okay Keith, you don’t have to worry. Go to bed.” He didn’t know what to say other than something to get Keith to leave, but Keith didn’t want to leave him like this. 

“Until you fall asleep I’m not leaving.” Keith made his way over and sat in the middle of the room, he was criss crossed and facing Lance’s bed. Lance himself was also sitting criss crossed in his bed but shifted his position after Keith gave him a look pointing to the covers. After Lance tucked himself in there was an awkward silence, neither knew what to do in this situation. They were used to all their moments together either being out on a battlefield or being a battle between each other. Keith broke the silence. “Does anything still hurt?”

“No, you know me, I heal up pretty quickly. Whatever that person threw at me was crazy though! I thought I’d end up with three holes in my head, luckily I am an excellent dodger.” Lance paused and chuckled. Keith didn’t get what was funny, what Lance had said was true. “I guess,” his tone darkened, “I might not be the best though. My shoulder got hit.” Keith examined Lance’s face. It had fallen face again, but only for a few seconds before changing once again. “Good for the ladies, another story for ‘how did you get this scar,’ I can say it was during an epic battle between a dangerous enemy. I fought as hard as I could and was about to win before my opponent pulled a fatal trick card and boom. I was out.” He exaggerated his story but seemed to be having fun so Keith didn’t mind. He did mind that Lance was talking about ladies again, he always talked about picking up girls but then never talked to one, besides Allura, for more than a few seconds. The whole thing irked Keith. 

Lance shifted in his bed and accidentally released a muffled whimper, Keiths attention was pulled from his thoughts and he inched closer to the edge of the bed. 

“Is your shoulder sore?” 

“No no, really it’s fine now-” Keith gently pushed on Lance’s shoulder where the wound had been, he recoiled his arm into himself and gasped from pain. 

Keith immediately felt guilty for causing his friend pain. “Sorry, did that hurt a lot?” 

Lance paused but then turned to look over at Keith with a weak smile, “Not too bad, it burns a little but I think I’ll be able to deal. Not as bad as the burns from some blasts I’ve taken.”

Keith frowned, he knew how painful a burn could be. It would sting all night and nothing could ease the pain, it often left other members, including himself, breathless sometimes. “If you need to release the tension…” He noticed Lance forcefully gripping his headphones, Keith made another impulse decision and replaced his hands for the object. At this point Lance didn’t protest, those headphones were from Earth, if he broke them there would not be 20 other pairs at the space mall to replace it. The two boys closed their eyes to avoid an awkward staring contest, the room was silent again but the atmosphere had eased a little bit more. Deep down, neither had wanted to be alone that night. Lance’s grip around Keith’s hands were tight at first, but then fluctuated throughout the night as the pain strengthened and weakened. Eventually, Lance relaxed completely and drifted off despite the pain. Knowing his friend was resting now and no longer suffering, Keith felt content. He didn’t mean to doze off, but he ended up sleeping that night with his head against Lance’s bed, their hands intertwined all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't post this one until today. I watch a tv show called i-land (from Bighit/Mnet) on Fridays and then I'm distracted by it all day lol. 
> 
> I hope whoever is reading this is actually enjoying the story so far!


	5. Where Are We Going Dressed Up?

“Lance! Keith?” At the sound of their names, the two jumped as far apart from one another as possible. Lance was scurrying back in his bed while Keith was practically already all the way across the room. The originally excited but then confused calling had come from Allura, she stood in the doorway with Shiro and Coran looking concerned behind her. “What-” Pidge and Hunk burst in, interrupting Allura’s question and jumped on top of Lance, promptly squeezing him to death. Hunk was sobbing over a happiness overload and even Pidge was sniffling a bit. 

“We missed you so much buddy!” Hunk was really going through it as he pulled his best friend to his chest. 

“Can’t… breath…” The Blue Paladin was turning a little blue from the hug, but a smile was spread wide across his face regardless. As Hunk apologized for almost choking him, Lance looked past and saw Shiro giving a look to a cross armed Keith, then Shiro shot a glance at him. Oh no, he did not want to talk about it, and he knew Keith was definitely not going to want to talk about it. Lance decided at that moment to simply forget what happened with Keith. He’d done it before, he could do it again. 

Coran slid over next to Lance’s bed and raised an eyebrow. “When did you wake up? And when did you get in your bed? Did you make sure your vital levels were steady before-”

“Coran,” Allura cut him off, “I think Lance is doing okay now, he may still need some rest for the next few days. How are you doing?” Pidge and Hunk climbed off from on top of him to let everyone else see their friend. Keith was still standing behind everyone, the only one not looking towards Lance. 

Lance looked around at everyone gathered before him, he showed them all a big smile, “I’m fine, you guys know I always recover quickly!” His weak laugh sounded again but the other paladins often fell for it like usual. He was healed physically, but everytime he let the team down something else inside him was wounded and no amount of time in the healing pod could fix it. 

“Aw, I’m so glad. That’s our Lancey-Lance!” Hunk wiped the last of the tears from his eyes.

“That is very good to hear,” Allura said relieved, beside her, Shiro and Coran agreed with nods and smiles.

Hunk still had an overflow of happiness, “I baked us some breakfast goo, and I made your favorite, Goopcakes!” Pidge and Coran made disgusted faces at the mention of Goopcakes but Lance smiled genuinely at his friend’s words. 

“You guys better not have eaten them all already.” Lance eyed Pidge but they rolled their eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be plenty left for you.” Pidge and Hunk wanted to stay longer by their friend's side but Shiro had Coran dragged them and Keith out to prepare the breakfast they promised. With the other’s gone, Allura made sure Lance really had recovered and left as well to chase the others down. Shiro was the only one left in the room and he stared across at Lance as he rose from his bed. The intense look Shiro was giving him was hard for Lance to ignore but he noticed it contained care and questioning behind it. 

“Lance, are you really doing okay? I know you’re out of the healing pod but it doesn’t always relieve all the pain. If you need me to get the others to leave you alone for a bit so you can rest I’d do so.”

Lance laughed as he grabbed his casual clothes, “Don’t worry Shiro, I really am doing fine.”

Shiro smiled, relieved, “That’s good to hear. Do you want to talk about what happened?” Lance panicked a bit before realizing Shiro probably meant he wanted to talk about him passing out, not about something else. He laughed a little, facing away from his senior. 

“Not much of a story to tell. I fought the enemy. I lost. I got hit. I passed out. They got away.” Lance walked towards his bathroom, hoping Shiro would leave him alone. It hurt to say that last part and although Shiro would never judge him, Lance still didn’t want to talk about his failures. Thankfully, the Black Paladin understood and headed for the door. 

“We’ll see you at breakfast then, don’t take too long!” The doors closed behind his last visitor and Lance let out a large sigh. With time finally alone, he let himself relax with a long, hot shower. Water always made him happier. The only water in space was either the pool or the shower, which made bathing time his happy time. The feeling of it running down him enveloped the boy in a sense of warmth, sometimes it reminded Lance of the beaches in Cuba too. The smell of the water was different but he had his scented toiletries to make up for that. Ignoring Shiro’s request, Lance let himself fall into a daze while washing and ended up staying in the shower for almost half a varga until shutting off the water and stepping out back into the cold world. He dried his hair, dressed, and mosturized before heading down the Castle hallways to the kitchen. 

+++

Lance sat on the far end of the table, Pidge had taken the head of the table and Hunk was standing while serving the other two. Shiro and Allura had eaten right after their visit to his room while Coran took his breakfast, which was a simple bowl of food goo, to go. Pidge and Hunk waited for their friend to be done washing up before consuming their own meals, and Lance was grateful he wouldn’t have to eat alone. It was confusing, a small part of him wanted to be alone but the other half really didn’t want to be alone. 

Keith was nowhere to be seen after being pushed out of the Blue Paladin’s quarters, at least that’s what the others mentioned. This was fine with Lance, it was actually normal for Keith to eat at different times, he shouldn’t be stuck thinking about where he might be. 

Hunk leaned over, “Do you like them?” He referred to the goopcakes Lance was scarfing down, and although they were made of the less than ideal food goo, Hunk could make anything taste good. It was like his superpower. Lance nodded and grinned while giving a thumbs up, this made the Yellow Paladin beam brightly and go back to eating his own plate. Pidge was sitting criss-crossed in their chair and slowly working on a bowl of regular goo, they were the only one not overly concentrated on anything to notice another person enter the kitchen. 

“Hey Keith, what’s up?” At Pidge’s words, Lance’s head shot up to catch the Red Paladin hesitating to walk any further. He and Keith made a few quick seconds of eye contact until Lance turned all his attention back down to his food. 

“Well, uh, I thought you guys would have already finished eating…” 

Hunk walked over and put his arm around Keith, “Aw Keith come eat with us, food is always better when there’s someone else to enjoy it with. My Moms used to always say ‘What you eat is not always important, it’s who you eat it with.’” Against Keith’s will, Hunk sat him down in a chair, the one directly next to Lance. Neither said any words as them came to realize their closeness, but luckily the other two in the room completely ignored their awkwardness and started up a conversation. Hunk also shoved a plate of several goopcakes in front of Keith, Keith waited a few seconds before digging in and satisfying his hunger. 

As their meal went on, Lance loosened up and returned to laughing comfortably at the jokes Hunk and Pidge cracked. They talked about random things ranging from old adventures together to their search for the mysterious “Akira” who had set the highest record on the only video game in the castle. They’d been questioning every member for months trying to get someone to give in and confess, but everyone had reasonable excuses. Allura wasn’t interested in the game while Coran and Shiro were both horribly bad at it, and everybody knew it wasn’t Lance because of how upset he was when discovering his high score had been topped. Their conversation about it was getting heated as Pidge, Hunk, and Lance all threw their fingers at each other. Keith sighed and went to take care of his dishes, he grabbed Lance’s empty plate as well and washed it. Lance didn’t even notice, but he did look over as the Red Paladin sat back down at the table instead of leaving. He narrowed his eyes and raised his eyebrows, when Keith noticed he threw back a confused and worried look. 

“What?” Keith asked. 

“Are you sure you aren’t this ‘Akira?’” Lance leaned in, Hunk and Pidge followed focusing their attention on Keith’s answer. 

Keith crossed his arms and shook his head, “I don’t even like video games, I don’t know why you keep asking. To me they’re a waste of time, you could be training instead.” The three others gasped at him calling it a waste, they’d almost gotten arrested for that gaming console, it was not a waste to them. 

Lance scoffed, “At least we know it’s definitely not Keith, he probably wouldn’t even be able to pass the first level. Playing it takes a certain skill,” He flipped his hair back, “A skill not even 20 hours in the training deck could get you.”

Keith frowned, though Lance saw it as more of a cute pout, “Training is important, and develops skills we can use in real life. You know, in battle.” Lance was about to come up with a rebuttal to throw in Keith’s stupid pouting face but Allura burst in smiling before he could say anything. 

“Good news Paladins, Coran and I found the perfect space shop in a nearby system that has just what we need to complete our outfits!” Allura was squealing and Hunk joined in celebrating with her. Lance was confused, was he missing something? Outfits for what? He quickly glanced over back and forth between Pidge and Keith who were both rolling their eyes. 

Pidge spoke, “I thought you already finished your outfit?” Lance still didn’t understand and wondered if they’d planned a fashion show while he was out. 

“No Pidge, my outfit is complete,” Allura frowned a little and fake tears formed in her eyes, “I can’t go too overboard because Shiro and I will be talking with the record keepers on the planet. They are known to keep tabs on strange ships that cause trouble throughout the galaxy or document any out of place happenings. You guys however, are there to have fun so the possibilities for your dressings are endless!”

Lance hated to interrupt but he really had no idea what was going on. “Um.” The others in the room turned to stare at him. Lance gulped before asking. “What are these outfits for?” As soon as the question left his mouth, shock displayed in everyone’s faces, even Keith’s eyes had widened at Lance’s question. The Blue Paladin never forgot about a party, he was always the most excited, besides Allura sometimes, when they had to attend events for the coalition. 

“Lance… it’s for the wedding on Ursuay.” Hunk replied for the others who had no words. 

He let out one of his fake laughs, “I forgot about that.” Lance tried not to let his smile fade, right then he really wasn’t in the mood to be thinking about a party. He was still a little shaken up from the past few days, and honestly, Lance didn’t even know if he was still going to want to attend a high energy event in a few days. The paladins exchanged looks. 

“Lance, are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Pidge nudged him, he snapped out of his thoughts and smiled. 

“Of course, it must have just slipped my mind. When is it again?” He laughed to try and ease their concern and it mainly worked. 

“It’s in six doboshes. Your outfit, which Shiro helped me pick, is hung in his closet. I would suggest grabbing it before the day comes because Shiro will forget.” Allura then pulled out her tablet and began showing a series of images to Hunk, Pidge was curious and joined them in their fashion evaluation. Having finished their meals and not being interested in what the trio was doing, Keith and Lance unintentionally stood up at the same time. Their eyes met but Lance motioned, letting Keith leave the table first. 

+++

The rest of the week had gone regularly for Lance, he made some trouble about the castle, crashed a few things, played some video games. Shiro made sure to check in on him the rest of the week and luckily only questioned him about his health. It was all relatively peaceful, except for the few times Lance caught himself subconsciously looking for Keith and then would get mad to find the boy just training. A part of him thought Keith was going to check in on him like Shiro did. That didn’t happen, and Lance shamed himself for expecting too much of his teammate. 

The day of the wedding arrived and excitement was buzzing throughout the castle. Allura and Hunk had managed to suck Shiro and Pidge into their excitement, although Pidge was more excited because Shiro was allowing them to bring their gaming console along. Earlier in the week Lance had followed Allura’s advice and picked up his outfit from Shiro’s room. It was a bright and warm blue suit, but it wasn’t simple in any way. It’s design was structured elegantly, Lance had never seen anything like it on Earth. He much preferred this style to the boring mediocre ones the Garrison had them wear for formal events. Lance stared down at it now, neatly hung in his closet, and wondered what the other’s outfits were going to look like. Maybe Keith would finally wear more colors than black and red. He chuckled to himself at the idea, Keith in any other color would surely be a sight to see. Then his thoughts turned to the fact that Keith would also be wearing a suit. 

“He better not steal any dates from me,” Lance grumbled as he put on his own outfit. As he was fixing himself in the mirror, his room door opened behind him and a friend walked in.

“You look handsome Lance,” Allura complimented him. He turned and saw her holding a couple things, but didn’t recognize them.

“Why thank you, Princess Allura.” He bowed to her with a smile and she laughed. “What is that you’re holding?”

Allura grinned, but it was the kind of grin you should fear because you know she’s about to force you to do something. “Oh, this? It’s some… items to help bring a sparkle to your look. It was very popular on Altea for parties and I thought you might want me to put some for you.” Her eyes had that sparkle again and she made a begging face to Lance hoping he would accept. Allura was one of his best friends and he knew how much things reminding her of Altea meant, plus he didn’t mind at all. 

“If it’s make up, I don’t mind. Do it however you like.”

Allura clapped in excitement and sat Lance down at his desk. “I’m so glad, okay, where should I start. I’ll do hair first!” Lance smiled and sighed as Allura began to happily run her fingers through his hair and combed it back. She put some kind of gel in that made it stay pushed back but still kept it’s natural texture. Lance reminded himself to ask Allura for some of that later. She sprinkled some sparkly substance in too and pushed that throughout. 

“Are you and Shiro going to have time to enjoy the party?” Lance asked as she hummed around him. 

“Hopefully, we’ll have a little time during the party before talking to the record keepers. If we get our information quickly and it’s not too late then I’m really wishing I could have some time to dance.” Allura began to work on Lance’s face, brushing something on and blending it around. “Are you going to do a lot of dancing tonight?”

“Naturally,” Lance boasted, “And I’m sure every lady at that party will be dying to be my partner. I have great moves you know.”

Allura laughed, “I’m aware of your dancing status, don’t break too many hearts tonight Lance. And make sure you save at least one dance for each of your best friends okay?”

“Don’t worry, despite how ‘in demand’ I am, I always keep one for you and Hunk. I can never drag Pidge out though, their loss.”

Allura began blending something above Lance’s eyes, she paused before speaking again in order to concentrate better. “Lance, I know Pidge is hopeless, but what about Keith?” Lance snapped his head back at the Paladin’s name, causing Allura to almost drop her tools. He gave an apologetic look after seeing she was slightly annoyed at his reaction. 

“No way I would never dance with that mullet head! I don’t even think he can dance, he probably has two left feet. And besides, Keith isn’t my best friend he’s…” Allura raised her eyebrows, but Lance didn’t have an answer for her. “I’m not going to dance with Keith.”

“Suit yourself, it was just a suggestion for you.” Allura finished the rest of Lance’s makeup in silence. She held up a mirror for him to see when it was all done. Lance admired Allura’s work, she had added a bit of blue eyeshadow above his eyes and blended it out, there were also sparkles that ran through his hair that glittered when he moved his head under the light. She’d also made his face have a golden glow as well which Lance really liked.

“It looks really good Allura.” Lance was sincere. 

“Really? I’m so glad you like it Lance!” Seeing Allura’s pure smile made Lance smile as well, he liked making others happy. In his opinion, the best way to do this was to support someone and do smaller things for them. Every tiny detail would add up. 

“Now you go get yourself ready!” Lance practically pushed Allura out of the room, but she had one more thing to say before leaving.

“Lance, I hope you find a date.”

“I always do.” Lance was boasting again. 

Allura laughed, “I was thinking you’d get one that was more, permanent, but however you want it! Just make sure to enjoy tonight! You deserve it!” With that, Allura skipped away and left a contemplating Lance in the castle hallways. Lance thought maybe Allura still felt bad about the whole “I used to like you but you ended up dating the new leader of the Galra, aka Lotor” ordeal. At first it hurt, but it had been a while and Lance realized seeing Allura happy with Lotor was one hundred times better than any instance when he’d flirted with her. Now he was over it, and he thought Allura knew that but was she encouraging him to get a partner because she really thought he hadn’t moved on? Whatever the reason, Lance shook it away from his thoughts and headed for the castle waiting area. He had a party to attend, and the Blue Paladin never got distracted at a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't concentrate, sorry this was two days late. I hope you're still excited to see what's coming! :)


	6. Where Was Keith?

Keith was fine. He was one hundred percent relaxed and was even slightly looking forward to going to the party. Everything about him was calm. Or at least it was, until Lance walked through the door. Keith practically choked when Lance strode into the waiting room wearing a sharp blue suit and a sparkling glow around him. 

“Hey Lance, you look good!” Hunk patted his buddy on the back as the Blue Paladin sat down on the couch. 

“Thanks Hunk, Allura did the make up for me. It’s not too much right?”

“No.” Two sets of eyes peered at Keith who had just burst his thoughts out. “I uh…” Keith didn’t even know why he blurted that out. Luckily, Hunk saved the disaster.

“I agree with Keith, it’s the perfect amount of sparkles.” Lance thanked the two and Keith swore he saw Lance’s gaze linger on him for a bit longer. Keith clenched his fists, the party hadn’t even started and he was already anxious. 

Shiro entered the room next in a simpler all black suit, then Pidge followed a few minutes later in a white button up, black pants, and a green vest. Keith had wanted to wear all black like Shiro, but Allura wouldn’t let him. Instead she picked out a deep red suit that was awfully similar in color to his paladin armor, at least it wasn’t a boring design and wasn’t too bright. He could handle wearing it for one night, especially since all he had to do was sit for a couple hours and eat food, occasionally clap. Parties weren’t really his scene, Keith wasn’t great at interacting with other people and his energy tended to lower around larger crowds. 

Keith was still lost in his thoughts when Shiro came over and stood next to him, the taller looked down at his brother and observed his expression. Shiro then glanced back and forth between a distracted Keith and a laughing Lance who was paying attention to Pidge’s game. He placed his hand gently on Keith’s shoulder, making the younger break from his train of thoughts and turn. 

“You’re going to make sure and enjoy tonight right Keith? You know you don’t always have to be in paladin mode.”

“Yes Shiro, I’ll try and have a little fun” Keith rolled his eyes but smiled. He wasn’t sure if it counted as joking around but he only felt comfortable responding like this with Shiro. 

Shiro nudged Keith and leaned in, “If you stick by Lance, I'm sure it wouldn’t be too hard. He’s quite the entertainer.” Shocked by his brother's words, a color similar to that of his suit shows on Keith’s face. His arms are crossed now and he sunk into himself trying to hide in plain sight. 

“If I were to hang out with Lance,” Keith whispers, “I’d probably end up dead somewhere.”

“Well,” Shiro smirked and Keith suddenly became worried that a plot was forming against him, “I hope to see you alive tomorrow because your seat is next to Lance’s.” 

“What?” Keith unintentionally shrieked, all eyes in the room turned to him but luckily the Black Paladin was still considerate of his close friend. He waved the other’s stare away and they all went back to their own conversations thinking it was just another squabble between the two brothers. Shiro then repositioned his hand on the panicking Red Paladin, he hadn’t expected Keith to react this way. Although if what he had been noticing going on between the two younger teammates for a while was what he assumed, then Keith’s reddened face, closed off stance, and outburst all made sense. 

“I have one more thing to discuss with you before the party tonight, I have to go check on Allura to see if she’s ready but before we leave, meet me out in the hallway.”

Keith nodded, having now composed himself. Once the Black Paladin left the room he took a deep breath and sat across from the huddled trio containing Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Pidge was concentrating hard on some game they were playing on their tablet, the two others hovered over their shoulder and watched intensely. Keith stared at them, still not understanding the hype behind video games. He’d tried out the dragon whatever game they had on the console, it wasn’t as interesting as he thought it would be. He’d heard that apparently Lance had spent a whole three days trying to beat the new top score held by Akira, to no avail. What a waste of time. 

Lance caught Keith’s gaze on him and his friends and decided to confront the lone wolf. “What were you and Shiro talking about?” 

Keith was caught off guard. “We just talked about stuff. Nothing that concerns you.” Definitely nothing that concerned Lance. 

“Okay,” Lance said slowly. He was suspicious of the Red Paladin’s answer and raised an eyebrow but didn’t question further, he knew what was between the two was for their ears only and respected that. Keith made sure to pull his eyes away from the trio across from him, specifically Lance, who’s hair sparkled with every smile at Pidge’s winnings. His eyes followed Coran, who had recently arrived, around for a while. He was pacing back and forth, mumbling to himself like he usually does. Eventually, Coran left the room again to see what was holding Allura up and Keith let his gaze fall to the floor. He rested his head on a hand and began to relax, his view of the floor getting darker and darker. 

Just as his eyes shut, someone plopped next to him on the couch. The sudden appearance caused Keith to jump a bit, but Lance wrapped an arm around him before he could scoot away. 

“Never thought you’d actually wear a suit like this Keith.” Lance said with a smirk. Keith had practically stopped functioning the second he felt an arm behind his back on the couch. 

“It’s for the coalition,” He managed, doing his best to maintain his usual cold tone. 

“Coalition this, Coalition that. When will you learn that there’s more to the universe than work.” Lance ran his fingers through his hair, careful not to mess up it’s slicked back formation but a few sparkles ended up falling down onto his shoulder. Keith eyed them, and without realizing was suddenly dusting the tiny flecks off of Lance’s suit. 

“What do you expect from me, this is our job.” Keith realized what he was doing and stopped, he turned his face up to see a frozen Lance blinking down at him. The two made no movements for a few seconds before Hunk and Pidge exclaimed from the couch on the other side of the room. 

“Yes I beat the level!” Pidge was beaming and Hunk was cheering behind them, the two hadn’t paid attention when their friend had hopped over to the other couch so they were unaware of Keith and Lance’s short awkwardness. Next to Keith, Lance lit up and removed his arm from around the Red Paladin. 

“You really beat it Pidge!” He was practically squealing and was about to go over to celebrate with the others but the doors to the waiting room opened, stopping the celebration. Shiro and Coran stood in the doorway, Coran held both thumbs up. 

“Alright Paladins, sorry for the delay, there was a slight problem with the castle mice getting into some hair products but no need to worry. Shiro and I got it all sorted out, so let’s head on down and party!” Coran was a bit too excited, it made the Paladins all cringe a bit but they had to admit the atmosphere would be duller without his energy. The four seated rose and began to exit the room, Keith tagged a little bit behind in order to see what Shiro said he wanted to talk about. As the others all rushed on ahead into the ship that would take them down, Shiro kept to his word and pulled Keith aside. 

“Keith, I wanted to ask you about something I’ve noticed.” Shiro seemed hesitant to ask, because the two were close he’d never hesitated to confront or ask Keith about something. Keith’s nerves suddenly rose a bit but he played it cool and crossed his arms. 

“Okay, go ahead.”

“I noticed, at least I think, but for a while now you’ve been acting… different around Lance. Do you feel different about him?” Shiro dug right to it. Keith swallowed, underneath he knew what Shiro was asking him, but Keith hadn’t thought to ask himself that yet. How did he feel about Lance? Was he still the same rival they’d been upon meeting? Was he just a teammate and friend, Keith thought that’s what Lance was to him but if Shiro was questioning it, then Keith was too. 

“I don’t know…” He meant to say he didn’t know what Shiro was asking, but mid sentence it faded out. Keith was now in a crisis and it didn’t even involve anybody shooting at him or trying to kill him. Shiro placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder, a touch that usually would bring him out of his stressed or shocked state. This time he barely felt it though and could only stare down with no response. 

“Sorry Keith, maybe you weren’t ready for this talk. My bad judgement, don’t think too much about it tonight. Why don’t we head down to the party?” All Keith could manage was a slight nod and a wave to reassure his older brother that everything was fine. It was not indeed fine but he was already working on shoving away the same feelings and thoughts that he’d repressed for the past year. As they made their way to the ship and sat down, Shiro grew more and more worried for the Red Paladin who was heavily spaced out. A few heads turned when they entered but luckily no one paid too much attention, and Keith could only hope absolutely no one would pay attention to him during the party. 

+++

The first half of the wedding was a long ceremony, the paladins had been given translators so they could understand everything that was being spoken. Despite not knowing anybody from the planet very well, Hunk and Allura still shed some tears. These kinds of atmospheres held soft spots in their hearts, Keith guessed it was because they were the only two in the team with partners right now. Allura had Lotor and Hunk had Shay, and although their relationships were long distance the two were still able to enjoy lovey-dovey things more than the other single members in the group. 

After the ceremony there was a traditional show put on that then led all the guests out to the after party area. Glorious spreads of food were in just about every direction, seating tables littered a large field with the Planet’s capital city shadowing in the background. Flower decorations floated around in the air and made a ring of arches towards the farthest tables. At the very center of the circular arrangement was a large area an Earther would describe as a dance floor. Keith wasn’t quite sure what it was made of but it lit up and could hold half the guests when they were spaced out, and everybody if they huddled together. The Paladins were led to their table which was located near the dance floor. It had larger gaps from other tables around in order to give the Paladins space from any fans. A couple of the tables around them also seated other important figures but none were space heroes, mainly just leaders or royalty from other planets close by. 

Unfortunately, Shiro hadn’t been lying about Keith’s seat being next to Lance’s. If only the table had been just a bit bigger than he would have been fine, but the seven were tightly packed at the table. Upon sitting down Keith could even smell Lance’s sweet fruity perfume he’d sprayed. It was not that Keith minded the smell, but being around it all night was sure to drive him crazy at some point. 

Once the music started up and each of the Paladins had grabbed some food, Allura and Shiro excused themselves and headed off for their meeting with the planet’s record keepers. Coran then immediately headed off to the dance floor and Pidge pulled out their portable gaming console, making sure to hide it well beneath the table. Keith kept his eyes glued to his food while Hunk and Lance gushed about the party. 

“This has got to be the best space event I’ve attended since that one Voltron show we put on. I mean, the food here is amazing! Have you tried the purple stuff on the stick yet? It's kind of chewy and sweet but has a savory aftertaste!”

Lance responded with a pout, “I didn’t get any of it, they were all gone when I got there.” Lance smirked and then leaned in closer to Hunk, “We should sneak some food back onto the ship.” Keith could tell Hunk was already grinning and planning with his buddy by their evil silent laughs. 

“Will you be trying anything else tonight Paladin Lance?” Hunk joked with his friend and used a formal tone when asking. 

Lance mimicked the same tone, “Thank you Culinary Master Hunk, but that will be all for tonight.”

“And what about some dancing?” Hunk washed down the last of his food with a drink, stood up and twirled. Keith looked up from his food and observed as Hunk’s head band followed the movement and fell by his shoulders. Lance chuckled and brushed the strands back for Hunk, Keith turned back to his food. 

“Dancing? You bet I’ll be dancing tonight, and I’m sure any of the lovely ladies here tonight will be dying to be my partner.” Keith gripped his fork tight while Lance spoke. 

Pidge looked up from their game and sighed, “When will you ever stop trying to be a playboy? Maybe if you acted more hard to get like Keith then they’d actually want you.” Keith’s head shot up at the mention of his name, why did Pidge have to pull him into this. He didn’t play hard to get with anyone, he simply didn’t play. 

“What has this got to do with Keith!” Lance crossed his arms beside the Red Paladin. “Playing hard to get is definitely not what the ladies want, and they especially don’t want his stupid mullet.”

Keith crossed his arms too, upset that he’d been sucked in. “I don’t need to get any ladies Lance. But maybe Pidge has a point, maybe if you’d stop running around and flirting with everybody you’d have a better chance.” Keith had no idea what he was saying right now, he just really wanted to bicker with Lance and fight him on this topic. 

“Oh I see, the lone wolf thinks acting cool and distant is desirable.” Lance shifted his expressions to resemble Keith’s upset face. “I’m Keith, I’m so cool and buff. Everybody wants me because I don’t show emotions and that’s hot. I even keep a knife under my pillow so try not to get too close at night or I might accidentally poke you.” 

“I don’t sound like that! And I warned you guys about scaring me when I’m asleep, it’s not my fault you were the closest Lance!” Keith was getting a bit red, did he really sound like that? Lance looked over at his rival and burst out laughing. His smiles caught Keith off guard again. 

“You should see your face right now Keith!” Lance continued to laugh for a little while and it was captivating to the Red Paladin. Lance’s clear happiness sparkled brighter than the glitter in his hair and Keith couldn’t stop himself from staring. It wasn’t until Hunk announced he was heading over to the dance floor that he caught himself gazing and turned away. 

“Do you want to join me Lance?” Hunk asked, Lance shook his head, surprisingly. 

“Nah, I’ll be over in a few ticks. I need to digest a bit more.” Hunk gave a glance to both Pidge and Keith but both shook their heads denying his invitation. Once he was gone though, Keith kind of wished he’d gone along because then he wouldn’t be stuck next to Lance. He felt something rising within him, like a little bubbly warmth that was uncontrollable. It rose at the rate his heart was pounding, which was quite fast now and sped up when he and Lance looked over at each other at the same time. They were staring again. Inside Keith’s head were screams to stop but he couldn’t look away. 

“So-” Lance started, but Keith stood from his seat cutting off the other. 

“I’ll… I’ll be right back.” He could barely breathe as he walked away from the table, leaving a stunned Lance behind. He sped away, far away, towards the farthest bathroom possible and only let go of his breath once inside. He held his head in his hands, why did everything feel so… sparkly? When Keith closed his eyes, images of the Blue Paladins smile flashed and Shiro’s question from earlier rang in his head. What did he feel for Lance?

+++ 

After sorting out his feelings, or half figuring them out. Keith prepared himself as best he could and headed back out to the party. He tried to walk as slowly as he could and took unnecessary steps around empty tables. The increasing number of couples around him did not improve anything about this situation, everywhere he turned he saw people cuddling or kissing or doing whatever it is that couples do. To avoid having to see any more of it, he looked up towards the sky. It was a comforting sight, one he’d always turn to when things were tough. He remembered nights at the Garrison on the roof alone or after his dad died laying by his grave and staring up at the stars. After Shiro went missing as well, one of his few comforts was looking out at the shining white orbs. Although it was a bit different from Earth’s view and anywhere else in space, he could always locate the same two stars. One red and one blue, they sat close to each other and outshined all the rest. He smiled as he focused on those two, maybe everything would be okay tonight. 

Keith smacked into someone, it knocked him back a bit and when he looked up to see Lance, everything inside him started bubbling all over again. He bit his lip as his heart melted while a grin spread across Lance’s face. It didn’t matter how many times Keith had seen that smile, it always softened his mood. 

“Keith! There you are!” Lance was excited to see him, Keith didn’t know why and a million questions sped through his head. 

“Were you… looking for me?” 

Did Lance blush or was that Keith’s imagination? “You disappeared on us, I had to make sure you weren’t dead or getting into trouble.” Keith concluded it was definitely his imagination, but he couldn’t get over the fact Lance had actually been looking for him. 

“Ah.” That was all Keith could manage. Lance questioned if he was doing alright. In the next few moments, Keith realized he wasn’t doing okay with this overload of emotions and ended up letting go of all his senses as he dragged the Blue Paladin impulsively to the dance floor. What happened next, was space history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second half of this chapter was basically the scene from the first chapter but it was centered more around Keith's view. A few details were left out just because you've already read that part. 
> 
> Also I don't have exactly a clear posting schedule yet but at least every 2-3 days a new chapter will be posted so ye.


	7. Where Do We Have to Go Next

When Lance woke up in the morning he had a bad headache and a weird feeling in his chest. Lance was pretty sure he hadn’t had a drop of alcohol at the party. He didn’t even think they served anything like that on the planet. Lance stretched and sat up, he couldn’t remember much from the party but a last memory struck him. Lance immediately fell off his bed, landing on top of his blue lion slippers. He covered his face. What was that? 

There wasn’t much that came back to him, just leaving to go find Keith, being dragged to the dance floor by Keith, weird by the way, and then a slow song coming on. Anything after Hunk shoving the two together he couldn’t remember, just a strange feeling was left rumbling inside him. He’d definitely remember to ask Hunk if a flying shoe hit him or if Keith knocked him out or something, what other logical explanation was there. 

Following his morning routine, Lance washed his face and took care of beauty items, then shuffled into his clothes. He barely remembered even showering and changing the night before but his extremely nice blue suit was thrown on the ground and all his makeup was washed off. Lance picked up the suit and gently hung it up in his closet. Allura would kill him if she ever found out, and frankly he couldn’t believe he’d done it himself. 

Lance yawned as he stepped out into the hallway, a heavy weight slowed his body. He felt sleepy and drained despite having just woken up. In the kitchen, Hunk was preparing some food, that was not food goo for once, and Coran sat reading something at the table. Lance looked around but no one else was up yet. 

“Hey Lance, how’d you sleep?” Hunk peered over from behind the stove and Coran lifted his eyes from his paper, the two had a suspicious look and were staring intensely at him. 

“Good. Still a bit tired though. I must have danced a little too much last night, I don’t remember anything past you trying to get Pidge to join us on the dance floor.” Lance sat down at the table on the opposite side from Coran, his stare was scaring him off from sitting anywhere closer. 

“You don’t remember anything after that? Nothing?” Coran interrogated him, Lance became increasingly worried that he’d done something really stupid. 

“No… Did I do something bad?” Lance was trying to keep himself calm and quickly racked his brain trying to recall anything. Hunk came over and placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder to comfort him. 

“Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything reckless. Something… unexpected just happened that’s all.” Lance was about to question what the quiznak he had done before a duo entered into the kitchen and took a seat in the two chairs next to him. He looked over and was met with a sleepy Keith whose hair was ruffled and eyes barely open. The weight that had been tugging inside Lance suddenly lifted a bit and his vision cleared up. It was a strange sensation but he didn’t pay much attention to it. Shiro was sitting next to Keith and looked over at Lance, who was staring at the two. 

“Good morning Lance.”

Lance quickly responded, “Good morning Shiro.” If Lance had turned away any quicker he would have missed the exchanged glances between Hunk and Shiro. Everybody was acting really strangely and all he wanted was answers. “Are you guys going to tell me what happened or are you going to talk about it behind my back?”

“I’d like to know too.” Keith suddenly spoke from next to Lance, he had been shoveling food into his mouth sleepily and was barely loud enough for the others to hear. 

“You don’t remember anything either?” Lance questioned him, now he was even more nervous. Had he really gotten into a fight with Keith? That seemed most likely but they usually saved any serious fights, the few they’d had, for inside the castle, not at a large wedding. Shiro motioned for the two boys to look at Coran who hopped up onto the table, he smacked his newspaper readings in front of the two boys and they immediately paused. 

“This,” Coran pointed to it, “is why we are never attending another wedding together again.” Displayed quite largely on the front cover was an image of the red and blue Paladins, dressed up in their suits from the night before and staring deeply into one another's eyes. The distance between them was embarrassingly close and had the two blushing at the photo with shocked expressions. Neither could believe what they were witnessing of themselves. Keith pushed away from the table and shot up while Lance jumped to the side at the same time, Shiro was clearly grinning but trying to hide it. Hunk tried to avoid the situation and whistled while he cooked more food. 

“When was that taken? Who- What-” Lance was freaking out, when had that happened? Sure he remembered Keith and him having to dance together but certainly not getting that close and that… intimate with him. He suddenly covered his face hoping they hadn’t done anything else besides stare. 

“Shiro… what is this?” Keith barely pushed the words out. His face was a bursting red color and his hair wasn’t doing much to hide the panic in his eyes. 

“I was hoping you and Lance could explain, but it seems neither of you remember, strangely.” Shiro shrugged and tried to get the two boys to calm down. Lance managed to compose himself a bit on the outside, inside he was still screaming at himself for doing whatever he had done. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal!” Coran twirled his mustache and seated the two back down. “I can guarantee that by next week the galaxy will have moved on to new gossip and forgotten all about this tiny predicament.” 

Lance did a double take, “Galaxy? Gossip?” He looked back down at the space newspaper, the writing was in a language he didn’t recognize,

“Right, I forgot you humans can’t read most space languages-” 

Lance interrupted as he crossed his arms, “Hey, I’m learning some I just haven’t learned this one yet. What does it say?”

“The title is ‘Galaxy’s Hottest New Paladin Couple-’”

“Couple?!” Keith and Lance screamed at the same time, Shiro hadn’t known about that part and his eyes had widened along with the two boys’. 

“Oh no no no, Keith and I are NOT a couple. We are literally the furthest thing from that, what do these people think? Keith is my rival, I don’t even like looking at his face!”

“Hey, it’s not like I’m okay with any of this either but you don’t have to insult me to make our distance clear Lance!”

“Whatever Mullet.” Lance shot a look at Keith and stuck his tongue out, Keith crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. All of this felt very wrong to Lance, he was practically fuming at the article. Something else was bubbling inside him as well and it wasn’t more anger. 

“You didn’t let me finish,” Coran silenced them, “It doesn’t say much about assuming you two are together, just says how guests noticed a fond look you shared during a dance and your ‘gravitational pull towards one another.’ But this news probably won’t leave the planet of Ursuay. Nothing to worry about.” Coran nodded at them, folding the paper back up. Shiro agreed with him and Coran looked between the two who were not calm yet. “You two aren’t,” He jabbed fingers at both boys, “Together, right?”

“Absolutely not.” Keith stated. 

“No way in a thousand galaxies!” Lance pouted. He couldn’t believe Coran would even question that, he and Keith were clearly just teammates. The only thing other than that would be rivals, but definitely nothing else. One dance didn’t change anything. 

Shiro stopped the conversation, “Now that we’ve got this sorted out, you two shouldn’t worry about it too much. Let’s eat. Allura and I want to have a meeting with all of you later today to discuss what we found out during the party.” Shiro waved over Hunk who placed full plates of more savory food in front of them, the two Paladins decided to put the issue away as suggested and dug in. Lance finished earlier than the others, having a smaller appetite for breakfast and thanked Hunk for the food before dashing out and hiding back in his room. As soon as he left the kitchen the heavy feeling from earlier crept back into him, weighing on his bones. A slight pain stayed in his chest and he frowned a little as he rubbed his hand over his breast. This pain wasn’t anything he’d felt before, it wasn’t extremely painful, just uncomfortable. He couldn’t quite place it, it almost felt as though he’d forgotten something and couldn’t remember what, and that was manifesting as an aching. Whatever it was, the party after his recent injuries probably caused it so Lance ignored it once more. He tried to listen to some music and draw for a bit but all his thoughts turned to Keith. He stopped drawing and decided to do some gaming instead to completely distract his thoughts. 

+++

A couple vargas later, Allura called everyone in the castle to the meeting she had promised. The seven of them were positioned in a circle around the projections Allura was displaying. They were images of the ships they had been tracking, or at least close replicas. Lance played around with the images making them bigger and observing the details. It was clear now Hunk had been right about the ships being deviants from old Galra fighters. These looked a lot more advanced though, and a lot scarier to deal with. Lance wasn’t scared obviously, it was just a few ships like any other mission. Once Allura briefed them about the info, they’d head off to find the ships and take their pilots into custody. Maybe a small space fight would break out but they always won, the most they would have to do would be forming Voltron. 

Hunk was also closely observing the ships, Pidge stood next to him and was jumping up to try and swat one from his grasp. Hunk teased them and put it up higher, pushing Pidge away a bit.

“You’ve been staring at that one for ten minutes now, hand it over!” Pidge complained, but Hunk held it even higher.

“I need to get the right angle, stop trying to climb over me Pidge! Pidge!” Hunk let out a small exclamation as Pidge pinched his arm. Hunk pretended to cry and Pidge eventually apologized, then Hunk finally gave in and brought it down for Pidge to see. The corners of Lance’s mouth upturned a bit, he was happy that no matter how many small fights they got into, Hunk and Pidge were still best friends through it all. They’re fighting even caused them to grow closer each time. The sight of Hunk rubbing his arm where he was pinched reminded Lance of his own pain, which had strangely faded away once again upon entering the control center. It was probably some passing aches anyways, although something inside still felt like it was being tugged at. 

“Lance, stop playing with the images I’m trying to look at it,” Keith came over and stood next to the Blue Paladin who had been continuously changing the size of the ship he was holding. It was bothering the Red Paladin who wanted a clear view. 

Startled a bit, Lance apologized, “Oh sorry Keith, I got lost in a train of thought.” Keith gave him a questioning look.

“Are you doing okay Lance?”

Lance sighed at the question, he was getting annoyed at being asked it now, “How many times do I have to answer that I’m fine for you guys to believe me?”

“Sorry I was just-”

“Alright Paladins!” Allura cut off their conversation and the two, along with all the others in the room, turned their attention to the Princess. She got right to it. “Here is what Shiro and I discovered during our talk with the record keeper last night.” Allura pulled up several files in front of the paladins, pushing all the ship's images to the side. There’s a total of four profiles that matched the four fighters they ran into, three of the pictures identified ex Galra generals or soldiers. Their positions were overall of higher statuses. Something strange which Lance noticed right away, was that they all abandoned the empire long before the Paladins took down Zarkon and Honerva. The ships still used the empire’s insignia, so they were on the empire's side but also not? The fourth file was the strangest, it was the suited fighter Lance had fought on the planet surface. Only a part of their helmet was lifted in the picture showing a small bit of purple skin. The image was also taken from a far away angle with little focus, and nothing in the profile that identified them as an Ex Galra anything. 

“Here are the four suspects who Shiro and I recognized from our encounter. The records say these four have been traveling together for years now. They have a pattern of landing on planets unannounced, exploring the place and then leaving, reportedly looking for something. It wasn’t until recently they became violent in their searches and started recklessly destroying the planet's surfaces. The team consists of Vernu, an ex-general who was quite high up in the rankings. She seems to be their leader and was the first to abandon the empire, for reasons unknown. The next two are Srax and Braht, these two left the empire at the same time after the station they were placed at was successfully infiltrated and shut down by the Blades of Marmora. Srax was a commander, and Braht was his right hand, the two reportedly joined with Vernu some time after leaving.”

Lance mumbled a joke to himself, chuckling a little, “Brat.”

Keith heard and turned innocently to correct him, “It’s pronounced similar to brought but with an ‘A.’”

Lance shoved him with his shoulder and whispered, “I know Keith, it’s a joke.” The Red Paladin pouted next to him, not understanding. Lance thought it was a cute expression but made sure not to stare. A funny feeling crept up into his stomach, replacing the pains that had been there not too long ago. 

“The last member is the most mysterious, which makes them possibly the most dangerous. Nothing is known about them besides when they joined the others about one Deca-Pheob ago. They are suspected to go under the name ‘Avok’ but that is unconfirmed.” Allura finished briefing them about the fugitives and flicked her hands, the profiles minimized and an image of the Blade of Marmora base was pulled up. Keith straightened up next to Lance and he looked over, the Red Paladin held a concerned gaze at the image of his former workplace. 

Allura continued talking, “This group, despite having separated from the Galra empire, is known to target the Blades of Marmora. Shiro and I think they found out about the Blades during their time in the empire and wanted revenge, as to why they didn’t report this to Zarkon is unknown, but a lot else is unknown as well.” Everyone else’s eyes turned to Keith who ignored their stares and only looked at Allura for more information.

“If they’re trying to take revenge on the Blades of Marmora, then what they’ve been searching for is the base right?” Keith asked. Lance, still looking over, noticed Keith clenching his fists by his side. In that moment, Lance felt the instinct to reach down and let Keith relieve his stress like he had done for him the other night, but he made no movements. It would look weird in front of the others if Lance randomly grabbed Keith’s hands, and he didn’t want his own teammates questioning the rumors that were already going around. 

Shiro shook his head and answered Keith’s question, “No, it doesn’t seem they are looking for the base directly. Based on their patterns and the types of areas they search, tombs, temples, hidden sites, forests, vaults, it’s more likely they are looking for an object. Possible one that could lead them to the Blades’ base.”

“Does something like that exist?” Pidge asked.

“It’s called a map Pidge,” Lance pointed out.

Pidge stuck their tongue out at him, “Besides a map Lance, and there aren’t any more that lead to the Blade’s base.”

“Most definitely there is something!” Coran chimed in, “Space is still full of countless mysteries. There are so many undiscovered energies and powers, and a lot of those forces are hiding in objects.” Allura nodded in agreement then pulled up one last projection, a map with a location. 

“We still need more information, but this planet might have what we need. There’s an expert there who studies the objects and relics of the universe, almost everything we’ve never heard of.” Allura barely finished her sentence before Pidge and Hunk squeal in delight. Lance was really interested too but didn’t squeal. Space was always so intriguing to him and he loved learning about undiscovered aspects or hidden secrets of the universe, even if the others doubted that he did. That was one of the reasons he joined the Garrison in the first place. 

“Alright so we’ll go to this planet, find what they’re looking for, and then capture them.” Keith blurted. 

Allura sighed, “I hope that’s how it will go.”

Hunk lightened the mood knowing what everyone was thinking, “As annoying as it is sometimes to have to visit seven different planets in order to catch someone, they always say the journey is the best part, not the end result.” 

Pidge rolled their eyes, “I think the payoff is the best part.” They turn to Allura, “Are we getting paid for this?”

“Pidge, not everything we do is for money. We have a duty to protect the universe.”

“While I agree with that Princess Allura,” Hunk pointed out, “We do have to do regular checks on the castle and ship parts are in no way cheap. Just saying.”

Shiro ended the debate, “They’re fugitives, if we capture them and turn them in, there is commission money.” Pidge celebrated and started discussing what to buy with Hunk. Lance thought about it himself, he wasn’t sure if there would even be any money left over for their personal wants but he supposed he’d probably buy some new beauty products from the space mall, his were running a bit low. Looking over at Keith, Lance supposed he’d probably buy another boring knife for under his pillow. Allura crossed the room as everyone else was having their own conversations and approached the side by side Red and Blue Paladins. 

“Keith, Lance, I trust you sorted out the… small rumor going around. There won’t be any unknowns when we touch down on land?”

“Absolutely no problems or anything at all going on here!” Lance assured Allura a little too quickly. 

“Don’t worry Allura, we,” Keith pointed to himself and Lance, “Have no idea what happened last night, but there is nothing behind it. Let’s just focus on the mission, Shiro said the rumors will probably go away soon.” Allura nodded at the two, fully believing what they believed themselves and walked away. Lance sighed and shook his head, still in disbelief the other Paladins would even slightly think that rumor was true. I mean, him and Keith? Together? Absolutely no way in the entire Galaxy that would ever be true. Lance didn’t even know if he liked boys that way, but even so he definitely didn’t like Keith in any way other than a friend and rival. Right…?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More time stuff
> 
> pheob ~ month  
> Deca-pheob ~ Year
> 
> Do you guys have any thoughts so far? I don't know if you're actually enjoying this but feel free to leave comments below at any point!


	8. Where Is the Pain

After the meeting was over Keith headed to the training bay and fought bots all day. For the next few days, the training bay was the only place he’d go besides the kitchen, his room, or the common area.

It was strange, the second he’d stepped out of the control room after the meeting, a small pain began to pound inside. It wasn’t too strong and faded a lot, especially when he was around the others during meals, but it also wasn’t something he could put to the side. It seriously bothered him sometimes, even thought it was just a small sharp pain. The aches originated from his chest, at times they moved down to his legs. It felt similar to growing pains, the ones you get when you’re young and in the prime of growth, but Keith was past that time in his life. 

Training constantly didn’t help much with the pain but Keith needed to keep his mind calm and this was the best way. The Blades of Marmora being brought up bothered him, it was unsettling to him, learning they were still someone’s target after everything. It didn’t matter that Keith had only been in the Blades for a few pheobs, they helped him learn about his past, about who he is, why certain things happened to him. They answered questions Keith had asked himself his whole life. They were ones he'd accepted to never have answers to, but then suddenly there they were. Not to mention the Blades leading him to his mother. Keith’s own mother. He was still wrapping his head around that. 

Keith fell back on the floor. “Stop the simulation,” he breathed and grabbed some water, chugging it down. The training deck bots shut down and retreated to wherever they were stored. His bayard transformed on the ground next to him and Keith placed his jacket adjacent to it. Sweat was dripping down his face, he wiped it off with a nearby towel and sat catching his breath and resting. With his body still, his thoughts began to return, no longer concentrated on training or the pain, this time they were of Lance. That was also why Keith trained nonstop, he needed to stop thinking about Lance, about the party, and especially about what happened. 

Keith buried his head in his hands and groaned, why did that planet have to write an entire article about him and Keith right after he’d just found out his feelings. It just reminded him every time Lance yelled out and swore nothing was between them, that it would never be reciprocated. Nobody was particularly mad about it, except Coran who was only upset since he’s in charge of the team's marketing and image. He wanted to keep Lance’s lover boy image and Keith’s lone wolf status protected, which meant there was no room for either of them to be dating, especially each other. Whatever, Keith assured he’d lose his interest soon and the feelings would fade. The pains in his chest mixed with his one-sided romance and made Keith lay down gripping his heart. Stupid space crush. 

+++

Lance hadn’t slept well the past few nights, he was tormented by the same strange pains he’d felt that first day after the party. They only got worse each day, and now when it was in his chest, it would be in his arms as well. For now, there was a small buzzing or aching, not too much spastic stabbing like at night. He didn’t have trouble hiding it from the others though, it strangely disappeared when they were all together. Lance should have been more worried, but he didn’t think too much about it and just tried to enjoy the times of relief.

Now, he was walking around the castle slumped over, trying to keep his thoughts off the aching, and a few other things. He heard the sound of the fighting simulation shuting down and was drawn to the noise. Lance had no idea who he would find behind the doors, but he wasn’t surprised when they opened and he was faced with a horizontal Keith. 

Keith jumped up from his spot, and the second their eyes something inside snapped. The pain that Lance had been trying to get away from was no longer an issue. It was all simply gone, replaced with an openness and relief as he stared across at the Red Paladin. Lance suddenly felt his face get a little hot, Keith wasn’t wearing his jacket which left him in a tight black t-shirt. Keith’s face was all red, probably exhausted from training for too long, but for some reason his sweaty look was quite attractive. Not that Lance was attracted to Keith, he just thought he looked really good right now. 

“Sorry Keith, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Lance almost turned away but he stopped himself, waiting for Keith’s answer. He did find it strange that the aches went away the second he and Keith met, maybe if he stuck around they’d come back. He wanted to see what would happen. 

“It’s okay Lance, I was just taking a break anyways.”

“Ah.” A silence overtook the two boys. Lance stood while Keith sipped more of his water, using his hand to wipe the extra water droplets off his chin. Lance didn’t mean to stare intensely, but he noticed Keith’s eyes looked sadder and darker than usual. He’d spent a long time looking at Keith’s face in the past, enough to note that the Red Paladin’s eyebrows were slightly creased further than normal, and not in the way his training usually turned them down. 

“Are you doing okay Keith?” Lance suddenly asked. It sort of blurted out, but most things he said around Keith did that anyways. 

“I’m fine. Just a little tired from practice that's all.” Lance was saddened a bit at his answer, he wanted Keith to tell him the truth. Even if they were rivals, they were teammates, buddies, and trusted each other during battles. It shouldn’t be too different outside of their lions.

Lance plopped down next to Keith and sighed, he was a bit thirsty and grabbed the water bottle from Keith. He took two big gulps before Keith could react and handed it back. 

“Is there something on your mind?” Lance asked. He spoke in a comfortable tone and waited patiently while Keith was silent.

“Just thinking about the mission I guess.” Keith took another large sip of water, depleting the liquid. “I’m worried about losing to them again.”

“Why? We have a solid team with great leaders, you included. It was my fault they got away last time anyways. But I promise I won’t mess up next,” Lance really meant what he said. He was determined to never let the team down again, even if he knew it was inevitable. Surprisingly, Keith shook his head at Lance and looked over.

“What happened wasn’t your fault. We all get beat up on missions so there’s no reason to blame yourself.”

What Keith said comforted Lance, but he still felt guilty. It was a feeling that never went away no matter how much reassurance he received. “Thanks Keith, but I’m pretty sure you’ve never returned from a mission with more than a bruise or two.”

Keith’s mouth opened in protest but closed again as he thought. His little pout emerged and Lance really wanted to snap a picture of the cute expression. 

After a few more ticks, Keith finally spoke, “That’s not true. We all had plenty of injuries after fighting Zarkon for the first time and finishing off Honerva. There was also that time Shiro and I got separated from you guys on some random planet. When the Castle was haunted and tried to kill us all, when the food goo machine went haywire. That time when Coran had us in the teleduv holding Hunk’s crystallized cookies, also after that one Lotor encounter. And when-”

Lance was cackling now, holding his stomach in joy. He held up his hands to silence Keith and wiped some tears from his eyes, “Okay okay, I get it.” Lance smirked. “I especially remember that one time you tried to pick a fight with those Arusians at a party but ten tackled you and you ended up with so many bruises and flowers all over your hair as punishment. ” Lance’s laughing continued as he remembered the scene in his head. That hadn’t just ruined Keith’s hair and left him aching all over, but it also affected his attitude for the rest of the week. No one wanted to eat any meals with him practically growling at their every movement. Something about grumpy Keith was cute though, kind of like his little pout. 

When Lance looked back over at Keith, the Paladin was staring blankly at him with a shocked expression. Lance’s brows raised. 

“Something wrong?”

Keith snapped out of his daze and shook his head, “No.” He stood up and grabbed his bayard, it morphed into his signature sword. “I think I’m ready to go back to training, thanks for checking in Lance.” Lance stood as well and stretched, he meant to turn away and leave Keith to his over-working, but as he pivoted something tugged him back. Kind of like a tight string was wrapped around his insides and pulling him back to where he was, back to where Keith was. Lance didn’t know why but he somehow knew if he were to leave then, the pains would return. Swiveling back to face Keith, Lance walked over and grabbed his bayard which was laying on the weapons table. 

“Actually… is it okay if I train with you? I don’t have much else to do.” Keith stared back, not quite knowing how to respond. 

“Yeah, just make sure to watch my back,” he finally said. 

Lance grinned, “Will do.” He transformed his bayard and pushed his back against Keith’s, protecting him from harm. 

+++ 

For the rest of the days until they arrived at their destination, Lance and Keith found themselves slowly intertwining their days together. After that first training together, the two observed how their sudden, seemingly random, pains would go away when close to each other. It was definitely the weirdest thing to happen to both of them, but still neither said anything. They didn’t even know the other was going through a similar experience. 

Lance had pretty quickly shrugged off the fact that all of the sudden he would have pains, unless around Keith. He didn’t want to think about it, he just wanted to focus on finishing this mission and being a worthy paladin. It didn’t really matter to him, his day didn’t change that much and he could easily sneak his way near Keith throughout the day. Lance had wanted to train more anyways, and the training deck was where Keith was most of the time so that made it easier. Everyone in the castle had dinner together and sometimes lunch as well, Keith would always eat at the same time as Lance so that wasn’t an issue either. The only other places Keith hung out was the common room, boring, but Lance learned to take his gaming console or projects there before Keith showed up so it seemed natural. After a few days, Lance started doubting that this whole pain thing was actually happening and that he had to be revolving around Keith, but the sharp pins in his chest at night reminded him of how real it actually was. He dealt with it at night, and luckily Keith wasn’t questioning any of Lance’s behavior throughout the day. Out of everything that was happening, that was what Lance found to be the weirdest, almost as if Keith was trying to be around Lance as well. Maybe the lone wolf of the team really was lonely. Whatever the case, Lance was really glad nobody was noticing him for once.

Keith on the other hand, was having so many internal struggles. He’d just found out he had certain kinds of feelings for Lance, had a rumor spread about him and his crush on some planet based on a moment he doesn’t even remember, developed some sort of chronic physical pain that went away only when he around Lance, his freaking crush, and what’s worse every where he turned Lance seemed to just be there. Some of that was Keith’s fault, the pain faded near Lance so he was purposefully going to him. If he could find a way to be near Lance, then maybe the pains would go away for good and he wouldn’t have to tell Shiro. He was planning to, but the second he found out it’s cure was Lance, Keith was not going to speak of it to anyone. He sincerely hoped all this would just go away, telling this to anyone was too embarrassing to think about. 

Besides making sure to eat his meals at the same time as Lance, Keith would now sometimes join Hunk, Pidge, and Lance in some of their antics around the castle as well. Destroying stuff was fun sometimes, and he was close with Pidge and Hunk. It’d been a while since the four hung out carefree, doing whatever. 

By the time the week ended, Lance and Keith’s daily activities almost all involved each other. They were sly about it, one would approach the other and say “Since we’re both here why don’t we train together,” or “Looks like we’re both bored, want to do something to pass time?” Others on the castle didn’t notice the change in that week, they were preparing for the mission which didn’t leave too much leisure time for Allura, Shiro, and Coran. Hunk and Pidge hung out with Lance and Keith but most other times they would be building something together or doing their own hobbies. Of course, there were also the Castle mice who spy on everyone, they would definitely be reporting the strange behavior to Allura later. Right now the boys were safe though. 

Unaware of their shared situation, Lance and Keith unintentionally collaborated to ease their pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a bit shorter than the others and I might have repeated some info several times but I swear it's important enough for that...


End file.
